In a fit of rage he picked up his bag and went off into the night.
Slowly making his way through the streets that still slept, the light polses that flickered and the dogs that slept peacefully.This was his every day ritual.
His anger was caused by his cab driver who had called him and informed him at the last instant, of a change in travel routes for that day. In all his clumsy madness he had forgotten to lock his room that was housed amongst a colony of other paying guest accomadations.
The entire road to this new pick up point is through an open drainage arena where the "shit" of yesterday finds itself on the brinks of tomorrow. As he made his way through the not so populated roads he found himself wondering...
Back to his mediocre life. He had always been the average guy. Not too brilliant to land himself a dream job , not too crappy an educational degree to propel him further into other more lucrative ventures. He had stuck with the sheep herd and done his rather unsuccessful engineering successfully.
And like many others like him , not found campus placements. He had loitered around cigarette shops, training institutes and much more to finally land himself a job at the call centre.
It paid for his education loan, it kept his family safe and happy and he had much more money for himself than ever before but the only downside was that he had to work the night shift. It was all too good , this new experience of corporate work stations, laptops , smart phones , free WiFi and perennially available coffee.
He had met a few friends and had really hit it off. They were a cool bunch of guys and girls. The thrill of the new found friendship had pretty much propelled him on , for the first half year of work.
By then he had bought a new phone, a new laptop , a fridge ,a washing machine and a 23 inch 3D LED TV.
Wait!
Everything had been on EMI and taken with great fanfare on discount sales that sprung up two a dozen every month.
By the tenth of every month his salary would be running on the very fumes of cigarettes he consumed to make it through the day.
It had been a year and a half since he broke up with his girlfriend. And to add to it , she had called him a few days back wanting to meet up and very cheerfully informed him about her marriage to this big shot guy in the USA.
The car already had three other people in it and they were fast asleep already !
A lot of his friends were in the States and a lot of his friends were getting married too. And he was there at the cliff hanger. The monotone of the night shift had not changed even after a year and a half and his year end reviews had been the first hit of hard reality.
The night offered him some peace. The soft breeze pulled him back to the present.
Another call came to him from his driver and the horn of the Tata Sumo reminded him again of the office.
He got in and closed the door and smiled to himself, atleast there were three more like him. But that was when his unrest came back to him , haunting him and tearing at his senses.
And the train of thoughts found their resonance, he remembered his old dreams ,as a kid . Growing up he had discarded everything to study and pass the exams. He had little knowledge of what hit him after first semester of engineering. He had lost his way and was lost in the labyrinths of reality. He remembered the promises he had made his parents about quitting cigarettes, drinking and being responsible. The romance of his first ever love story and all the things they had planned. It hit him really hard, like potholes on the railway track , his inability to overcome all this.
He wanted to go back again to sleep, to the last days of school , to his mother's lap and his father's farm and his grandfather's cycle.
Sure enough he came to office and found tons of mails and calls to attend. And as easily as he had slid into depression he went out of the same into his chores.
No coffee breaks, no gossip breaks and no internet. His day at work had begun. He began answering his call of duty.
But he had forgotten all about the key and the door he had left ajar.
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