It’s an eraser broken into three pieces, held together by a rubber band, with a pin piercing through the center.

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The eraser came from nowhere. I’m very sure I don’t own it. I’m reasonably sure I did not get it from my office facilities room either. But it has been lying at my desk for quite some time. I started paying attention to it probably 8-9 months back when a merciless colleague of mine came to my desk and broke it into two. Trivial, but I could not approve of the colleague coming out of nowhere and breaking my eraser; especially since he came asking for a favor. Soon after he left happy at getting his job done, I tied a rubber band (which I happened to have then) around the eraser. Then I could at least imagine that it is in shape and feeling alright. I guess that act of benevolence set off the ‘guardian’ feeling that I now have towards it.

The next act of disfiguration was by a subordinate!! He came to my desk when I was away to fill my water bottle. Within the 180 seconds of my absence, he stripped the eraser of the rubber band and ripped off a small piece from one of the two halves. If not for my quick intervention, he would have raped it beyond recognition. God knows what sort of ‘Un-fear your boss’ globes he has; when I complained, he kept giggling. Of course I made him wait till I fixed the-now-’MY’ eraser and kept it safely on top of my computer CPU. The ‘guardian’ feeling was cemented. The eraser was there to stay. 

It underwent two major transformations since then. I colored the bottom side blue and let a lady colleague of mine write ‘M’ twice on the top side. It retained this form for a significantly long time. Any colleague who dared to touch it was properly dealt with. My reactions were laughed at by most; only one found the ‘guardian’ feeling perfectly valid. The second and quite recent transformation was the pin. I had got it along with me to peel off the skin from the edges of my fingers – that’s a good way to spend time while I wait for my computer database to respond. I guess the ‘monument’ look that the eraser has now is mainly due to the pin.

The last 8-9 months have been quite important to my career. I had just come back from Chennai. Promotion, a new team, a new role,a new boss, new client.. the eraser was witness to all that. Over time, I’ve developed a decent amount of emotional attachment to it. So yesterday, I took it home. I don’t want to lose it.