The people of my life Link to heading

I want to write about the people currently in my life. The people that I see everyday.

What is life but the people in in it, no?

So here are they - I see them at work almost everyday.

Thomas sits across my desk. He’s French and proud of his heritage and culture. He try to make everyone open up. He is a jolly good fellow and always tries to have a conversation with everyone. He seems like a happy person most of the time, like 95% of the time even though he is complaining about things left and right. He likes to eat and can talk about food forever :)

Hussein, from Lebanon, sits right next to me. Most of the time he’s a bit grumpy and serious but that’s on purpose. He has an Arabian heart - whatever that means. He’s a man of discipline and commitment. He doesn’t show emotion but I could sense that there is a river of emotion buried beneath the surface. Only very rarely they show.

On my right sits Kanika Pant. She hails from India and she’s a Brahman. She is kind and has a lot of feminine energy. I think she is ready to be a mother. Sometimes she is hesitant and not so confident but she is recovering. She got her Residence Permit the other day and seemed very happy about it.

Yevheniia is from Ukraine. There is a war going on in Uktraine right now. Russia is invading Ukraine just because it can. Yevheniia is very elegant, in everything she does. She is graceful in her mannerism, how she speaks, how she walks. She is a bit old but it doesn’t show. She has a son studying bio technology. She is very private and do not join in most of our conversations. I can easily imagine life being very very hard for her ( there’s a war going on!! ) but she is very good at hiding her pain.

On the other room for engineers we have Mykola, Sepid, Andrew and Rick.

Mykola is from Ukraine and the youngest of us. He has this boyish charm still in him. I think he is introverted. He is a good engineer, passionate about his work. Delivering good work makes him joyful. Seems like he takes pride in it. More often than not he gets done more work that he should. That is to say he exceeds our expectation more often than not. He also has a very nice mechanical keyboard.

Andrew is from the US. He used to work in the entertainment industry and seems to know a lot about movies. Seems like an easy going, kinda cheerful guy. But I also think he has seen some rough time and gets distracted every once in a while.

Rick is from Italy and a jolly good fellow and almost always fun to be around. He is funny and will continue to find reasons to laugh. Sometimes it feels like blessing. To be able to laugh at almost anything. We watched a couple of movies together in the kino and I enjoyed his company.

Sepideh is from Iran. She’s an artist at heart. She has been photographing for a while and takes really good photos that everyone is proud of. She likes to watch movies and tv series and also anime but doesn’t like popular superhero movies but more into art films.

On the business side we have Casimir, Sophie and Martha.

Casimir is German. He likes structure and always try to keep things organized. He is honest and it shows. He got married a couple months ago and I think he’s going through the best time of his life even though he doesn’t know it. I just sometimes see him work too much and I think he shouldn’t. One thing I noticed about him is that he likes to avoid heavy food for lunch. We don’t talk often but I enjoy talking to him.

Martha left us last week. She was the office administrator. She took care of the office and made sure there is always food in the office and would prepare breakfast or lunch every once in a while. She is very good at her job and you would notice it after she cleans up the kitchen or some other thing. Sometimes she would work very late. Just the day before she left, I noticed something weird. I was working late to deploy some stuff, Hussein was with me in the office. Martha was also working late. For some reason she started crying and sobbing really hard. I thought she was a very strong person and not fragile at all. I was wrong. I think deep down, everyone is kind of sad. Some people are just really good at hiding them.

Then there is Sophie. Her story is for another day!!