Late - Latif to Early - Murli

Places change you.

I am this typical late commer. I had a 100% record in coming late to class during my engineering days. Since in engineering, the benches get occupied from back to front, I was a non-intentional front bencher because of my punctuality or the lack of it. My friend Amit, sometimes used to get so pissed that he used to call me half an hour before the actual time for group meets so that I make it to the meetings just 10 minutes late.

Infact, I also got a career threatening 'Incomplete' grade during my MBA because I missed 3 classes due to coming late.

But nothing changed.

I started working and this is where I received the shot on my head. I entered my desk 5 minutes late at 7:35, and my boss greets me 'Good Afternoon, Karthik!' with a sarcastic grin. He had slapped me a thousand times and given me 500 lashes without even raising his hand. I got the SMS he sent me.

Nowadays, I am the first person in my desk. Even during my recent visit to India, we friends met at a common place and I reached there 5 mins before time much to their astonishment. This punctuality has made me feel s good about myself. It has given me confidence and doesn't make me defensive right from the beginning wherein I would have to explain/apologize for late coming.
But then, sometimes, in some situations, I do think it is better to err on the side of being late than early. You can't win everything, can you?