Lost in transit

It came on a platter and I let it go by... Here's how it went (away). Shortly after I joined Hindustan Times in Kolkata, there was talk that the Ranchi edition was short-staffed and the head office in Delhi wanted to know if anybody from the Kolkata office wanted to be transferred there. But by the time staff came to know about it, there was a 'twist in the tale'. The rumour was that some employees would be transferred to Ranchi against their wishes. So, for some days, everytime my boss called me, I thought, 'this was it'.
The boss never called, but one day when I landed in office, 10 minutes late, a senior colleague I used to report to, told me, "There was a call for you. You have to go to Jamshedpur."
Coming to Kolkata from Bhubaneswar had taken me away from my mother to my father. Going to Jamshedpur now would take me away from both. So with such fears in mind, I worked reluctantly that day, dreading the moment when my boss would call me into his cabin and officially communicate to me that my services would, henceforth, be required at the Jamshedpur office.
I wondered what may have provoked my transfer. Was it the delay in releasing my page the night before? Or perhaps the silly headline I had been reprimanded for, mildly then, a week ago. Or maybe because I walked in 10 minutes late that day.
And yet, the call from my boss never came. Had he forgotten? Or was he trying to make up his mind on where to send me, Ranchi or Jamshedpur?
He even passed by my desk once. He looked at me and I looked at him but there was no communication. So, it occured to me that he would tell me at the end of the day, when I went to show him my page before releasing it.
So, suddenly, I was extra careful. Running my eyes a second time over every sentence I had subbed, every headline I had given, every caption, every slug, every intro. Finally, the moment of reckoning arrived.
He took one long look at the page and yet, either he did not see anything wrong or simply was in a hurry. He asked me if my senior had okayed the page. When I confirmed he had, boss asked me to release the page.
I had just turned around when he called me again. "Wait a minute," he said.
Here it comes.
He asked me if I would like to go to Jamshedpur. Suddenly, on realising that I actually had a choice, I blurted out "No", perhaps even before he had completed the question.
He continued, "It's a day-long trip, a junket from ONGC. You don't have to book the tickets. You travel by train, stay at a nice hotel, enjoy and come back. If you feel like it, just reach Howrah station tomorrow morning and the rest will be taken care of." He even called my chief sub-editor and asked him to excuse me for a day if I changed my mind about this junket.
There I stood like a fool. I had said 'No' with so much stress. There was no way I was going to change my answer in a lifetime.