Do what you have to | Readers Write

So you plan a classic hang-out day with your best friend. You'll watch a movie, go laugh at the ugly tourist fashions in Thamel, browse through a bookshop, maybe slowly wander through Ason, gagging at the dried fish, do momos at New Dish, and then dutifully head home, just in time for boring old dinner with your annoying little brother and deaf aunty. You're no longer in college, but at work, so you can't just bunk class. Plus there's aunty to take care of. An outing like this has to be planned with military precision.

But So-Called Best Friend rings in the morning to say he can't make it, and it turns out later that he was was just being lazy, or had ditched you for some girl he's interested in.

Say you're in college, and plan a killer presentation for your BBS class—research, interviews, a flashy powerpoint, the works. And the day you have to put it all together, you realise half your group haven't done what they'd said they would. Even worse, you yourself are the person who promised and didn't deliver.

I figured this out the hard way. I only started working four months ago, but the very first month, when I had to coordinate a big shipment of fingerless gloves, sock puppets, and pom-pom hats, I slept on the job. Almost everyone else had done what they were supposed to, but I didn't. I also might have ignored a few emails in favour of minesweeper and put off some of the more tedious spreadsheet work. We had a horrible, expensive last-minute rush and salvaged things. But there was hell to pay and I got many 'we're disappointed in you' looks. I've never felt more like a rat.

Remember those horrid homilies we used to get in school—do your duty, be good, and all that insufferable stuff. Turns out, there might be something there. What a dreadful thought. Though, if it also turns out that liars are always found out, that's not too bad. The makers of that disgusting 'butterscotch' candy will go to hell for false marketing. I, meanwhile, will make sure I keep my promises and do my duty and be all good and stuff.