Lil' Fellas' Routine...

[I have tried my hand at something different in this piece of writing. I really feel many of my readers will be able to relate to this piece. This essay is entirely imaginative and any coincidence is purely unintentional. Further, I strongly believe there will be many whose opinions would differ 180 degress wrt mine; I would like to remind them that while I respect their sentiments, I stand by my views.]

TRRRRIIINNNGGGG!!! The alarm clock banged on his ears. It was half past six. The rays of the morning sun pierced through the translucent window beside his bed and flashed on his eyes. It provided a momentary effulgence to his dreams; but the combined effort of the alarm and the sun rays denied him any more rest. He could hardly open his eyes - the slumber of the previous night seemed insufficient. But he knew that another snooze and he would surely not make it to work that day.

"Approach each day as though it provides you an opportunity to learn new things" - These words of his dad kept ringing in his ears all the time and provided him the much needed drive to approach his work with an unusual zest and piquancy. Picking himself up from the bed, he hurriedly finished his morning routine, neatly fit into his formals, swung the strap of the bag across his body, adjusted the Company ID Tag on his collar so that it didn't hurt his nape, took his copy of THE HINDU and set on his path to catch the company bus. The next one hour would be the most enjoyable of the two dozen everyday.

Getting onto the bus, his eyeballs moved faster than ever to quickly spot a window seat; one on which the Push Back worked. Occupying his seat, he flung open his copy of THE HINDU and skimmed through it. There was a twinkle in his eye; it gleamed with the faux radiance of the North Star. The reason - Charming Suchi with her tuneful voice was on air. He had never listened to FM Radio Stations before. Ever since he joined his company a month back, he has been all ears to Suchi, Archana and a host of other RJs on Tamil Radio Stations. The voice was addictive and it provided him the perfect backdrop to read The Metro Plus.

He was loathe to travel and the journey from his place to the office was far from being comfy. The traffic moved as though a “Slow Vehicle Race” was on and the bumpy roads only added to his discomfort. Nevertheless, Suchi and “The Guardian” Crossword gave him good company during the roller coaster ride through the decrepit roads of the City outskirts.

Once he reached the air-conditioned premises of his company, he helped himself to a cup of Horlicks. After chugalugging the beverage, he settled in his cubicle for another long day, spent gazing at the monitor display, checking mails, creating logic, coding data, debugging errors et al., It was only a month since he had joined work but already he found the job becoming monotonous. He thought there was nothing as stodgy as coding... But then he had no other option but to stay put in his job. After all, something is better than nothing, isn't it?

The lunch in his company was next to awesome. It really mattered a lot to a gourmand like him. In fact, in his school days, he had debated successfully against “Gluttony kills more than the knife” during a debate and won accolades. Whenever his morale was down, he would think of the wonderful lunch that his company offered at a subsidized rate, and that would buck him up. Lunch was followed by a short nap sitting on his chair inside the cubicle. As evening approached, restlessness crept in. The itch to leave the office grew exponentially as the sun sank beyond vision.

Though 6PM was the official out-time, if anybody left at the stroke of six, it left a bad impression with the bosses. And our fella always made a conscious effort to be in the good graces of his boss. So he didn't mind staying at least up to 7 in the evening. Another reason - The cavalcade of buses that left at 6PM would always get stuck up thanks to the traffic snarls; and those which started at 7PM would invariably catch up with those that left an hour earlier.

The evening bus ride was at best tiresome and at worst woozy – the bumpy roads, polluted air, noisy vehicles, the clatter inside the bus and to top it all, weariness due to the sedentary nature of the job – all these gave a feeling that it would take eternity to reach home. Finally when he alighted from the bus, it was dark. He slowly walked up to his residence, had his dinner and found some time to relax.

Reflecting upon the happenings of the day, he asked himself - “Did I learn anything new today?”. Maybe he did... maybe he didn't... But he wasn't happy. He didn't like the nature of the work he was involved in. He dreamt for something bigger; something better; something more challenging; something more interesting; something more satisfying and most importantly something more rewarding...

Even as his dreams started taking shape, the day's exhaustion got the better of him and his eye-lids closed slowly but surely. At last he could afford to give his physical body and mental faculties the much needed rest. He was not sure if he would get a good nights' sleep unlike the previous day; but he was dead sure about one thing – the next day was going to be as dull, as monotonous, as prosaic as the last thirty days had been, if not more.