A young lady of my acquaintance just thrives on chaos. She is quite unfazed when things are at sixes and sevens and seems to enjoy herself when there is utter confusion all round her.

She just takes it in her stride and carries on with her daily routine without any sign of irritation at the inconvenience she must have to put up with.

A couple of years ago, she had the bright idea of re-modelling her perfectly fine kitchen. Bitten by the renovation bug, she went in for a modular kitchen. Being thorough, she did intensive research, consulted an architect and zeroed in on the design. Her backyard abounded in granite slabs, tiles, glass panels, pieces of wood in varying sizes, stacks of bricks, bags of cement and mounds of sand.

The kitchen was to be ready in three months. But workers being what they are, the time frame extended to nearly six months. During those months, she tolerated the dust, noise and general mess that the re-modelling entailed. When the kitchen was finally ready, she expressed her satisfaction at the transformation. “It was well worth the wait and the discomfort,” she pronounced.

This March, she was consumed by the desire to add on a home office. “It’s a simple job. Walls have to be erected, windows put in and a door fixed. After the flooring is done, some shelves and cabinets would have to be fitted, of course.” If there is one thing I admire about, it’s her optimism. “How long will it take?’ I asked, quailing at the thought.
“It should be finished in eight weeks,” she answered blithely.

Apart from looking at the bright side of things, she is a veteran at understatement. One thing led to another. This necessitated furniture being dismantled and heaped with a touch of artistry in the living room. Negotiating the way through the debris and the rubble proved as easy as scaling rugged terrain. But the lady was not one bit put off. She endured the hardships with commendable patience and resilience.

Despite everything being helter skelter, she didn’t ignore her work or let her child miss school. I salute her ability to ignore the disarray. Hats off to her! The torrid summer months passed and the monsoon set in before some semblance of order was restored on the home front. Prompted by the devil in me which could not  quite be quelled, I quipped, “What change are you contemplating next?”

“I haven’t relay thought about it,” was the bland, straight-faced response.