Here’s something I hate: The blaring of the television when I am working. By that I mean, working in the kitchen.

I know many, or most, do not consider what’s done in the kitchen as work. Nevertheless, cooking to me is work, something I enjoy doing, but still work, serious work. And I hate it when my peace is shattered while engaged in work by a blaring television.

By that I in no way mean it is okay if the volume were to be brought down a notch or two to an acceptable level. No Siree, no. I don’t want the television on. Period. Or a phone, or a tablet. I want peace and quiet.

The last thing you need when you are working is a background noise you dislike disrupting the calm you need. The only disruption of the silence I am not averse to while at work is some music I love. Music is the oil that gets the machinery of work moving.

What I dreaded about the L&M’s retirement happened a few years back when he started switching on the television at all hours of the day whenever he felt like it. After all he was a free man with time on his hands. Why not watch some television?

This was Grade A Disaster as far as I was concerned.

Thirty odd years of peace and silence during the day flew out of the window making me pull out my hair in frustration looking for an answer. Before I could make myself go all bald, I decided to tell the L&M this had to stop.

The home, or rather the kitchen, was after all my ‘office’ where I work. You cannot play television in offices when people are working. What if someone did that at your work place? This was the gist of my argument that I presented to him.

He laughed in a is-this-even-a-real-question kind of way and wouldn’t answer my (genuine) question. Yeah, he’s a great one for wriggling out of questions that I inevitably ask with studious silence. But on the plus side …he stopped switching on the television at all times of the day, and instead restricted his viewing time to certain time slots which incidentally happened to be….. half an our or so before lunch/dinner.

Bummer!

Unfortunately that happened to be the exact time I stepped into the kitchen to prep for lunch/dinner. But now I cannot complain, can I? The options open to me are either change my ‘work’ timings or… gently close the kitchen door and get on with my work. So that’s what I do. 😉

©️ Shail Mohan 2026