Catch this play on what happens when a boss says 'you're fired'

Look around you before you read this article any further. Chances are that you're sitting at your breakfast table, gobbling up toast and eggs, before rushing out of the door to make it in time for work. Or, you might be taking your daily commute to office, squeezing in some minutes to keep abreast of the news before the corporate rat race engulfs your life.

Either way, it's highly likely - especially in a city like ours - that charting a successful professional career eats up most of your waking hours like a Pac-Man ghost eats up the dots in its path. And the three words that fill us up with dread at the mere thought of it are these - "You are fired."

If that is indeed the case, then a play being staged later this week is bound to resonate with your existential situation. It's called Dhumrapaan, and is set in the smoking room of a corporate office over the course of a working week. A new boss joins the team on Monday. A senior employee makes a boo-boo on Tuesday. His colleagues think of salvaging the situation on Wednesday. And on Thursday, the boss announces that after reviewing the situation, he has decided to hand the pink slip to someone, with Friday being the day that the axe finally descends on the neck of the person concerned.

The entire plot sounds deadly serious. But Sarthak Kakar, who's part of the cast, tells us that the play is a comedy. "It's all about situational humour," he says, which is just as well, because given the daily rigmarole our careers necessitate, any avenue to laugh a little is always welcome. Otherwise, forget jobs, it would be our sanity that's on the line.

ON: June 9 and June 10, 7 pm
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