‘Hello sir, the master (HDD of a TV episode) will leave office in 10 min.’
‘Ok, it is 3.30 pm right now so let us hope by 4.30 the work will start?.’
‘Yes surely.’
Ok, when your runner calls me, I will leave according to what he says.’
Runner called at 4.
‘Sir, I have given the disk to the studio on the first floor.’
‘Are they starting the mixing soon?’
‘Yes they will start now’
‘Ok then I will speak to someone and find out’

Gautam had planned to see a play at 9 pm. He knew the mixing takes about 4 hours, thus he will be able to make it to Prithvi just in time. He waited for runner’s call… but the phone did not ring for next one and a half hour! Tired of waiting, he called editor back.
‘What happen? The runner didn’t reach…’
‘No sir, actually the channel (TV channel) sent another set of feed backs, so we are stuck with them. We have informed the studio to wait until further signal.’
‘Oh god!… Ok fine.’
5 mins became 90 mins! He saw his play fading away into the oblivion. Gautam was getting waves of mild shocks of anxieties that were fading away as they were appearing. It became dark.
Gautam had an early dinner at 8, thinking the dinner time will definitely be when the mixing will be on and eating then will be not be practical. He any ways liked home food than to order snacks from restaurants. He is not young any more to eat outside stuff often.
Dinner over, gautam relaxed. He knew now, it was going to be well into the night, like any other tough day; err night. If it is inevitable it was no point worrying, he thought. he spoke once more to the editor and got a vague reply. Now he relaxed…
Call came at 10.30.
‘Sir, I have given the hard disk on the second floor.’
‘Ok’ gautam said, ‘but inform the office what time the work will start.’
Gautam reached the studio at 10.45. He calculated even if the work started at 11 it will be 3 am when it gets over. He entered the first floor first and asked who was going to mix it. They said it will happen on the second floor and the new engineer was going to mix. Gautam’s heart sank. His strategy has been to work with experienced people so that he does not have to be on high alert always. More over experienced people can contribute with their ideas to the episode much more than raw ones. He reached the second floor. The episode had been copied and tracks were in place. At 11, it rolled. The guy was doing fine. It fact he was quite alert about the dialogue quality and was very comfortable with software. After 13 mins of program was done, suddenly some guys barged in and started discussing another serial.
‘There is mistake and it has to be corrected. Telecast is tomorrow.’
‘How long will it take?’ Gautam asked.
‘Half an hour’
Gautam gave in. But it is always a problem to spend that spare time. In that sense that studio is a very boring place. he did not want to sit and watch another program. None of them were his type. He decided to take a walk in the long corridor. At 12 midnight he entered back in. But there was more bad news for him.
‘Sir the episode has to be remixed.’
‘Oh ok. and how long will that take?’
‘One hour’
Giving up gautam sat down on the sofa, then he put his feet up, soon he reclined and finally lied down.
‘Sir you can sleep for a while’
Gautam shut his eyes and mind from their conversations, program sounds and the discomfort that had fallen on him. He rested his head on his arm. Strangely today he was much more patient and relaxed…
And that helped him to take his ‘work seat’ at 2.30 am!
Now all the time was theirs. They put their heads down and worked till 6.15 am and did a decent job of it, in spite of being pushed around from 11 pm to 2.30 am. Stopping work for three and a half hours in the middle of the night! It was not funny.
Just about three months back gautam would not have taken this kind of incidence lightly. He would have made many calls and made a lot of noise at the unfair practice at the studio. But he knew it was nobody’s fault, except the channel to some extent.
In the end gautam thanked the engineer and left. In two minutes he was on his way home in an auto rickshaw. He was thinking that he was the worst sufferer in this case. He is also the oldest person in the team. But surely he got the maximum benefit from this night. He got a real practical lesson in how to keep cool.
Mulling over past few hours, he realized that no incidence in the night raised his heart beat or made him tense. He felt very good noticing his cool inner panorama. He needs it at this age and especially as he grows older – inevitably.