When the cat’s away, the mice will play

Blondie is one of my favourite comic strips and I make it sure to go through the antics of Bumstead each morning. I came across an earlier strip where Bumstead goes to his boss and says, ” I want to talk to you about a summer vacation.” Boss asks in surprise, ” Summer vacation? What about it?” Bumstead says with aplomb, ” Well Sir, everybody in the office wants you to take one.”

Each one of us has a child in us and this child in us that gets familiarised with the realities of the world in our school days, refuses to subside till the very fag end. Remember the glee and joy, when our class or subject teacher was absent and we would get a free period! That indescribable joy stays with us in college as well as work place. The boss could be easy to get along or a tough nut! His or her proceeding on vacation gives us far more joy than our own vacation, as disguised vacation with unlimited freedom is more palatable than our own vacation, when we could be on leave, but our boss is in office making our vacation difficult if not altogether miserable!

All of us are bosses in our right or become bosses as we muster vintage in the system. This feeling is not unique or exclusive to any individual or grade, but universal and as aforesaid, it stays with us throughout (remember the feeling of freedom when wife , who is no less a boss albeit of the house, goes on a short sojourn to her parents! ). There’s an old saying in Hindi that can be loosely translated as “when boss of the house is away, there’s nothing to fear anyway” or an old English adage, ” when the cat’s away, the mice will play” and these sayings clearly express this feeling! Just wonder, whose vacation makes Premier Modi, the biggest boss of the country, happy? May be Amit Shah’s, for his absence for once may give PM some respite from election related politicking ?