The
streaking sunlight made its way piercing into my eyes through the gap between
my due-for-wash curtains. My long cherished fitness dreams of morning walk
silently mocked at me. My morning alarm had shrugged and given up finally. It
failed to ring. I got up scratching hard and hurting myself in irritation to
see the bed bug moving away triumphantly after completing its mission. I had
set the alarm for 6 o clock in the evening! The 24-hour format makes me use my much
strained capacity for numbers and calculation… did I say capacity? I meant
paralysis.
The
worst of all compulsive disorders is the inability to enter bathroom when it’s
not up to your mark of cleanliness. I pulled myself against the force that was
pulling me back to bed where my villain was waiting with a smile. Sometimes I
wonder how in God’s creation, a creature that is not 1/100th the
size of my mole can destroy my sleep and wait to suck blood again hungrily.
Thankfully, its territory is earmarked to the bed or any place that you may
wish to stay poise for more than 30 seconds.
I
thanked God with a deep sense of gratitude for bringing my mother back from her
native when she came in with hot, refreshing Green tea with honey and lemon – a
healthy habit, thanks to my recent lactose intolerance. I quickly made my
compromise reluctantly with the bathroom after the customary phone conversation
that takes place on all week days. It was Biju calling on behalf of Rekha, my
travel partner to office. “Are you going today”? I said “Hi Biju, yes” in the
most conditioned tone possible to avoid sounding like a just-woken-up. I could
see his teasing smile beaming through the airtel towers “So you just woke up,
huh? Rekha told me you might still be sleeping” My mind responded in succession
– the alarm, the bed bug, the late night work… I thought forget it, I said in
my natural voice “yeeaah.. so 9:30, near the cobblers shop”
My
mother was alerted with a gun – “departure time – 9:30”. She coolly turned it
over to my head- “you first have your bath”.
I
am sure the hardest decision in every lady’s social & official life is the
outfit for the day. Quick steps towards the wardrobe, a fast act of swinging
the cupboard open and a then comes a long pause of staring endlessly at the
stack of clothes that are disqualified for variety of reasons that unfold one
after the other. Too loose, too tight, no matching dupatta, shows the stomach,
shapeless, hand looks big, deep neck, too bright, same colour as yesterday,
worn out, oh… no, not formal wear.. Shirt looks dull, makes me look like a bull…
and its time to re run choices from the beginning again… Finally, I made my
compromise with a dress not seen by my friends in a long time. When I closed
the cupboard, the wise woman in me asked – why don’t I give away clothes with
reasons resounding helplessly everyday.., The fool in my mind answered – “What would I do without the choices?”
9:36
Am – this time it was Rekha.. “Shall we”? I said “yeah yeah… Please start” with
a deep satisfaction for one reason – it takes her 5 mins more than me to reach
the cobbler’s shop. I paced quickly towards the door mindlessly after the call
when my mother gently said… “Your lunch!”. I swung back and grabbed it when I
saw my dad showing signs of an imaginary chain around his neck. – “Your access
badge!” His eyes looked bigger than usual at my absent mindedness while his
pace and tone of worship got louder to express his displeasure. I said… bye
appa.. he lifted his right hand and my mother came to the door to send me off.
I
accelerated to the cobbler’s shop where Rekha was standing with Biju.. I
breathed easy… atleast the next one and half hours of rallying through the
unconquerable Bangalore
The
taxis can be forgiven for one reason… they attack you but disappear into the
wind before your mind processes the happening and you blink with dropped jaws
saying “Did you see what taxi guy”? and your companion answers “which one”? But
the autos.. my mind recollected the bed bugs and the similarity to autos. They
are small, less powerful ( I wished they had more power in their engines), they
can never be destroyed. There is no such space in the world that they cannot
occupy, no direction on the earth that they cannot turn without an indication.
There is just nothing that they cannot do on the road. They are the most
annoying barrier to every benz, audi and honda city and the Volvo A/c buses in
the city. I suddenly realized in between my conversation with Rekha that an
auto had abdruptly come to a halt in the middle of the road causing endless
cascading jerks to every vehicle behind one another, just to consider his
chances of picking up a girl who was standing on the median to cross the road.
To calm myself from the fury, I imagined a JCB lifting the auto and throwing it
aside in a land that is sound proof and human proof. I came back from my
imaginary world just to realize that the auto fellow turned down the proposal
and moved on casually without the slightest trace of botheration. And then
there are the smarties of the road, the bikers who show off their heroism
performing the zig-zag feat on the jam-packed road. The feat is performed with
double excitement if there is a pillion rider girl holding the guy. They also
use their skill of finding every inch on the road in any direction as close as
possible to your vehicle. I remember not long back, the pillion rider foot rest
of a bike that came very close to my car had scraped my bumper.. the biker was
staring at me for the uneasiness that it caused his bike from moving forward
and I was staring at him for the scraped out bumper. And we parted ways to mind
our business.
It
was around 10:45 when I waved bye to Rekha that I realized that I had gotten
tired due to the talking, high blood pressure due to senseless and evil drivers
and the strain on my leg due to driving. My department was in the next building.
I was thanking my stars for getting a decent parking space when I suddenly
realized that there is a 11 o clock call that I need to join. I had the meeting
Id in my mail in the laptop. I quickly tried calling one of my colleagues,
heard half a romantic song in Malayalam ending with “the person you have called
has not replied. Please try again later”.
I raced towards the so called “Lift” in “minus 2” basement of my office
to see a group of people waiting for the lift and my mind immediately started
gauging the space inside an empty lift to accommodate all of us hopefully. I
quickly moved a little forward near the lift when I got some stares from others
that said – “You think we are all fools here”? I decently moved back and turned
my face to avoid the “That’s better” glances. All of us were eyeing the floor
indicator in the lift like watching India-Pakistan cricket match in a group
outside the Samsung or Philips showroom. The numbers in the digital floor
indicator could move up or down to any number like the stock market. There were
totally 3 lifts out of which one was always out of service for some reason. If
the number in one lift comes down over the other, the entire hoard moved
towards it… and likewise to the other lift. This dance went on for some time
and the lift never came below floor 3. It was 10:55. I thought of engaging
myself in a phone conversation to avoid getting more impatient but when I
called a friend, It felt as if the entire crowd was watching us talk on a
stage. The crowd grew in size and there were reliefs in many faces when the
much awaited lift landed in minus 2 without a space for even a single shoe to
enter. Some passengers felt sorry while others were scanning our dresses,
giving us glances from top to bottom. We continued the dance of moving to the
other lift… this time with more synchronization and more in number. The next
lift arrived and I was terrified at the thought of the person closest to the
door of the lift getting his nose smashed when the door closed. It was 10:58
and I was considering taking the stairs but was horrified about going out of
shape, gasping for breath on the way to 5th floor and dying out of
exhaustion like the other day and have people think that I need an ambulance.
Also, that action replay would make my team think that I am stricken with panic
attack before every call… I remembered the power of positive thinking and stood
firm to see the third one take off with more number of people standing in
different directions to help from falling on each other. Finally I got a call
from my leader at 11:00 asking me to join the call… I got a small comment and
then the meeting Id with which I dialed in. While some people braved climbing
stairs, I was still waiting for my flight to the most desired destination – 5th
floor. There came another one with 2 or 3 slots. 13 of us looked at each other
and the smart ones quickly got in. Finally, my turn came in when I saw a lady
with a huge bag and a big free space behind her… I gently indicated to her and
said “Can you please move a little behind?” with the sweetest smile I could
manage. She shook herself in the same place like its some form of dance and
gave a cold glance. I made my way inside and she stood like a rock… her bag
around her shoulders occupied 2 more person’s space and I wanted to scream loud
at her saying.. “this is not your bedroom”. We reached the 1st floor
and she hatefully uttered “Excuse me…” I turned around to give her some space
when she got through but her huge bag got stuck and finally scraped through us.
She hit her head, murmured something hatefully and walked off when I realized I
should probably step out in the next floor to give space for off boarding
passengers. While giving my attention to the call, I stepped out in the 2nd
floor decently for 2 people to step out and was shocked to realize 6 people
entered the lift pushing me aside and then the sorry look and scanning from top
to bottom again. Finally I decided to take the stairs to the 5th
floor and when I reached my destination, I heard my name on the call and I
said.. “oh..ah.. aah.. yes.. I am here”. And I heard my leader asking me “are
you ok”?
When
I reached my final destination of my seat.. I realized the day is about to
begin...
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