Psychedelic lights, a throbbing dance floor, a bar overflowing with drinks and a girl almost reduced to tears at one corner of the room.
I won't shame your intelligence by asking you to pick the odd one out. Yes, the girl almost on the verge of a panic attack would be me at my first tryst with my office party.
It was the first time I was seeing so many tipsy people at one place. There are no bounds to what a slight overdose of alcohol can do to people at these parties. The perfectly normal people, whom you meet everyday, take on a new avatar after treating themselves to generous quantities of liquor. Slightly tipsy, overtly tipsy, some trying hard not to be tipsy and some zonked out — there is hardly a type that you will find missing.
And there would be people like me — a perfect study in contrast — feeling like an extra-terrestrial being plunged right in the middle of absolute anarchy. Music at full blast, which sets your heart thumping so hard, you almost wish it would stop, and wild dance moves that could make you run for the sorcerer, these parties have a unique way of making the uninitiated feel like a square peg in a round hole. It's that awkward moment when you realise that what's supposed to be a fun way of winding down, can actually make you break out into a cold sweat.
Half of the evening was spent in playing "catch me if you can" with friends and acquaintances threatening to drag me on to the already crowded dance floor the moment they spotted me in the half-lit room. The latter half was devoted to searching someone equally or more old-fashioned, or if I'm allowed to dilute the sugar content of the expression, someone sticking out like a sore thumb in that ambience, to accompany me back to office.
Thankfully enough, there were some who had their cognitive powers intact to realise that it was getting late. They were not in a position to give attention to details or else they would not have missed the intense expression of gratitude in my eyes.
I won't shame your intelligence by asking you to pick the odd one out. Yes, the girl almost on the verge of a panic attack would be me at my first tryst with my office party.
It was the first time I was seeing so many tipsy people at one place. There are no bounds to what a slight overdose of alcohol can do to people at these parties. The perfectly normal people, whom you meet everyday, take on a new avatar after treating themselves to generous quantities of liquor. Slightly tipsy, overtly tipsy, some trying hard not to be tipsy and some zonked out — there is hardly a type that you will find missing.
And there would be people like me — a perfect study in contrast — feeling like an extra-terrestrial being plunged right in the middle of absolute anarchy. Music at full blast, which sets your heart thumping so hard, you almost wish it would stop, and wild dance moves that could make you run for the sorcerer, these parties have a unique way of making the uninitiated feel like a square peg in a round hole. It's that awkward moment when you realise that what's supposed to be a fun way of winding down, can actually make you break out into a cold sweat.
Half of the evening was spent in playing "catch me if you can" with friends and acquaintances threatening to drag me on to the already crowded dance floor the moment they spotted me in the half-lit room. The latter half was devoted to searching someone equally or more old-fashioned, or if I'm allowed to dilute the sugar content of the expression, someone sticking out like a sore thumb in that ambience, to accompany me back to office.
Thankfully enough, there were some who had their cognitive powers intact to realise that it was getting late. They were not in a position to give attention to details or else they would not have missed the intense expression of gratitude in my eyes.
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