Does it matter after all?.......................4 I tell you guys it’s so adorable to hug the bed tighter in the morning and pray it to be four o’clock rather than the alarm clock ringing near your ears. All the while between the college days and the new life at job, there are days filled with anxiety and despair! Having nothing to do, all day long. Wake up like a jellyfish from the bed, turning every twist out of the limbs. Cracking the neck and stretching your chest out to bend the back to its limit. And then flop into the cushion for another five minute nap. “Get up Sourav, you must pay the electric bill today! No staying a couch potato today. Don’t you feel a little pity on your Dad? He does the office, and the market, and you need him to pay this electric bill too? Don’t you have any shame?” “Mom, why don’t you guys pay the bill online? What is this computer for?” I tried to excuse myself. “Computers are Latin for your father and what will we do when you are gone. Now get up you lazy brat! You won’t appreciate me waking you up. Or do you want to?” she screamed from the kitchen. And so was my alarm clock beating into my eardrum with the ringing noise. Now I miss those times. Even after my Mom threatened me for the worst, she would come into my room and sit beside me. I remember the touch of her hand in my hair and the kiss on my temple. “Dear, the sun is long up.” she whispered to my lazy head and brings up the tea plate to my face. She knew without the tea I would never wake up. “Wakeup Call; the time is eight fifty-seven a.m.” the clock kept whining like a pig to my ear. I am going to be late I scolded myself it’s about to be nine. I am so dead. Last night rain has got my throat roughed up. Anything down my throat was a pain. Brushing my teeth was ok, but the gulping was so horribly painful. I somehow got myself to quench my thirst but nibbling on the dry bread was like standing before the bull. I tried my best to reach the office on time, but search all down the history; even Napoleon couldn’t befriend time, how could I. The day started with a notice paper from Miss Asma giving me a note about my felony. “Look there, what have you got? She still doesn’t know you and you already earned yourself a date with OOOOhhhh Mizzz Azzma” Garima snorted. All the friends I made yesterday stared at me to explain what I will be buttering on Miss Asma to excuse myself for being over an hour late to the office. All I could cough out “I wasn’t feeling well this morning” with a hashed voice. Aman retorted “You got a point man, she won’t hold you up for a long explanation unless she wants to go home coughing herself.” Gauri hi-fived Aman. And that was a gulp which I dared not to swallow. Before I was rushing to get out of bed and head for the office knowing I will be already getting a half day absentees. The temptation was to dig into the bed throw the cover over my face and fall back to sleep. But instead I thought what I got here. On one hand a complete day for myself nobody asking me what I did fooling all day long and on another hand there is someone coming to the office who can give me a reason to smile all through the day and all through the night. We seemed to have been allocated cubes all around each other. And job assignment yet to be decided. Was all fun chatting with each other except me daring not to voice, scared of the thorns ready to scrub the inner walls of my throat! Abhilasha was sitting across me in her cube. I brought up my hand closed the finger tips together and flicked my wrist to my lips asking her to come with me for a tea or coffee with the tilting of my head to one side. She smiled slightly lowered her head and by reflex her lashes closed over her eyes. I got up from my chair and strolled towards the room exit. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw her packing up her purse. While waiting by the elevator I decided to press the button, so that by the time she was here with me, the elevator door would be opening. I heard a footstep coming out of the room round the corridor towards me. Desperately I got my ears hearing every step she took closing up to me. I decided to hide my anxious face for the moment, so I turned my face. The footsteps grew nearer, but halfway down the corridor it stopped. If boys are from Mars filled with valour and dignity, then girls are the princess of Venus blooming with elegance and divinity. Hurt their stature and you get robbed of all the blessed privileges. In between the opening and closing of the elevator door in my face I waited for her to complete those last few steps so I could turn around and greet her into the elevator. This was the Buddha moment for me; I got enlightened with the worldly knowledge that ‘Elevator and opportunity waits for no one. He gets the prime who is on time.’ I lost the elevator and the opportunity; she wasn’t completing those last steps. Rather some scuffling sound came from her feet. She must be getting a second thought about going out with me for a coffee and I was feeling like having my socked feet in my mouth. Even the socks must be months delayed for the wash. From the anxiety of eagerness to the anxiety of mercy my face must be the comedy for no one watching. But the deftness of the moment was to turn around bend on my knees and plead for her mercy. I had already made a fool of myself being arrogant so this time I wanted to do this with style. As soon as I twisted I got down on my knees and slowly raised my puppy face into the lady. The lady was shuffling the mopping stick across the floor diligently but her eyes popped out at my pleading posture. Her shoulders shrugged in astonishment and disbelief. And behind by her waist I could see Abhilasha approaching towards us. She must have seen all this happening in real time and in no time she was standing beside me. I lifted my eyes and saw her raise her eyebrows smiling at me confirming “The first time you were on your knees, I brushed it off as a poor mishap but dear me. You either like it or you are in a habit of being on knees before girls!” My face flushed red with blood and I stiffened my lips together along with my fingers crossed among them. I wasn’t sure I could live through this moment and wanted to bury my face into the concrete floor right between my legs. Men from Mars would never call me their brother, and Ladies of Venus would hold this moment to demean the men whenever they want to prove failing supremacy. She went behind me and pressed the button, while I was trying to get up on my feet behind her. The mopping lady was smiling to my shame, as she got a laughter to hold in her stomach. People say ladies can’t digest secrets. I pray this event doesn’t count amidst the category of her secrets. Time is tyrant never stays when you want those most, but dribbles painfully away, in those moments where you don’t want to stay. I cursed the elevator zillion times to come up early as possible, but the God has implanted a default time phase into my fate since my birth. Eventually the elevator arrived. I got in first and she joined me in the empty lift. Abhilasha was standing infront of me facing outside into the corridor, I could see over her shoulder the lady holding the mop down smiling at us faintly which suddenly grew wider with a mix of appreciation and sarcasm as she drifted her eyes from her to me. I dared not to go around Abhilasha. Definitely meeting her eyes was like swallowing my own saliva down my throat. Both could sprain my nerves to utmost agony. With the day the sore throat got a chance to recover, but will she forget what just happened? Does the God want all my foolishness to pour right infront of her? That would be a sacrilege of own personality. I was biting my tongue in my mouth while she kept her head to her bosom. The elevator was filled with a faint fragrance of rose which I could smell standing just less than a palm distance away.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 17:03:56 +0000
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