7 a.m. Slam goes the door. I wake up only to see a rude face. It’s the housekeeper going in and out my room I curse him in my mind. #%$%^. Nice start to the day. I mumble and try to close my eyes, and my alarm rings. Alarm here referring to the vibrator on my mobile. Mom gives me a wake up call everyday. Half asleep I attend the call and think the day aint gonna be bad after all. Now that I’m awake, I decide to rush to have my bath. Not coz I’m eager to go to office. I need to beat my roomies so that I can at least get to office on time. I do all that and get dressed, while listening to songs on my mobile J 8 a.m. Looking all professional, I sit at the messed up dining table only to find breakfast, which I kept thinking would get good some day. Half stomach filled I go to the nearby shop and get a pack of ‘Tiger’ biscuits, which actually helped me survive.
9 a.m. I am supposed to be in office by 9. But there I am, with my colleague, goin in our three wheeled, super speed, motor less vehicle, with a guy going ‘puff’, ‘pant’ and ‘wheeze’ in front of us. (I’ve taken effort not to mention the vehicles name here). I go thro my regular calls before reaching office.
9.30 a.m. My computer screen pops up a box which asks me why I am late. Do I blame it on my roomie who beat me to the bath, do I blame bad breakfast. No, No… I am tempted to blame my colleague who made me wait for 15 mins in front of her ladies hostel. I actually shouldn’t complain ;) but there wasn’t any good eye candy there! Finally I type in ‘personal’ as the reason and start working. Well, i did blame on the poor transport system and the government a few times too! ;)
Now, I start losing track of time. If its interesting work, I’ll be all enthu. Else, I’ll be staring at the monitor. 'Else' here referring to somethin which i don wanna mention. (What if my boss reads the blog?? :-)) Yea, I’ve managed to master ‘The Look’, which convinced my profs that I was listening in class and now, ppl in office too fell for it J. I turn around to have a look at the entire bay and find most of the other people doing the same (Their 'Look' aint as convincing as mine i guess). What motivation!! After a couple of coffee breaks, which btw involved a lot of complaining about work, I hear my next alarm. This time its my stomach growling. No, No, not the 'tigers' which i had for breakfast! Am hungry! Lunch is the only time I get variety in food. So I take a nice long break. Long break because I knew I’d be in office till late. Me, a guy who was always fascinated by the concept of a food court, now is so bored of it! Heavy crowd, no place to sit, so noisy that you have to walk out everytime you get a call! The only good meal of the day got so monotonous that i actually wished i had tiger biscuit again! On the way back to office i notice many ppl taking their daily walk. Yea, in the air conditioned corridor of the office complex. Is it because of the lack of time? Is it because the roads are too polluted and crowded to have a peaceful walk? Well.. i guessed it was both!
Back to my computer now. I don’t have ‘The look’ anymore. Now am half asleep. The next half an hour would be really testing – Boss, HR making rounds and then the team lead would ‘ ping’ any time. Had to be really alert and yet manage a nap J. I manage to do that. The next few hours pass by in a flash. 6 pm now. Would be eager to get home but then I get to know I have a client call. After 2 more hours of work and another trip in the only available mode of transport I reach home, all drained out, only to find stale rotis. I manage to eat something and make a trip to drink milk, the only thing which kept me going. Gotta owe it to my friend who made sure i drank milk everyday! :-)
Being a teetotaller was frowned upon. Imagine a guy drinking a pack of milk in place filled with smoke and plenty of other 'people' consuming alcohol. I've had people point at me and laugh. And yet, there i was, having milk everyday!
What followed was an hour watching friends. Then i'd settle on the patio or the terrace for long chats with friends, on the phone, which usually goes on till late in the night. I finally start to doze off. I get back to my room. My eyes close…..
SLAM goes the door!! No, its not morning yet.. this time its my roomie coming in late!
