Its 1:30 in the night and i am sitting with my back to the window on
my 14th floor apartment in the heart of mumbai city. Next to my
building runs a road which even at this time of hour is not bereft
of passing vehicles. There is just one difference, all of them are
in great hurry. Running at a speed which is only achieved at this
hour of the night as in the day time they can't even think of going
over half of the permissible speed limit due to the snail pace
traffic. The dead silence of the night is broken by the occasional
heavy drone of a truck or the whiz that can only be of a bike. Some
times an auto passes by with the high pitch of an engine at full
throttel but the speed hampered by the age and poor maintainence.
Good for the occasional wandering pedestrian whom i can't hear but i
know must be out there. Gosh!! the city really never sleeps. Some
advertising guy must have been thinking of a line working on a brief
by citibank and must have realized this long ago. The city never
sleeps, and neither can't I.
The day has been long and i have put in my share of working hours in
the company's kitty. Had they been paying by working hours, i would
definitely have been richer than the CEO, unless the house keeping
guy beat me to it. I doubt if Rahul(my flatmate) has ever even seen
me sleeping. Usually I wake up before him, and by the time i am
dressed, he is just turning and tossing in bed with his weary eyes
just wishing that the day just would stop or go away. I leave for the
office by the time he is in the bathroom. When i come back he is not
home, so i just help my self to whatever novel/paperback is around
that i am in the process of reading. By the time he arrives, i am i
little ahead from where i was. I just keep on to my book, and may be
go on an occasional chat. Soon the food arrives, we watch an episode
or two of friends while at the food and then he goes off chatting on
the phone and i again help my self to the book.
Recently some how he has tried to pick up the habit, but the phone
and the slumber coupled with the job have made it a bit harder on the
poor chap. Now wonder he doesn't find time to go through it. I really
pity him. I brought him ludlum't bourne identity from the store and
he hasn't been able to finish it in the last 5 days. Now what kind
of a soul won't be able to finish off the book in one sitting except
for a real miserable one. There's nothing as painful as sitting by
the side of a fast paced novel which you have started but are unable
to finish, even when you want to. So all i can do is just watch.
Right now even as i am writing this, the poor chap is putting in half
hearted effort fighting off the tiredness from a day's work and hours on phone.
Hmm...at last he has given up, sleepy and tired has gone to hit the
bed. Today he stuck to the novel far longer than I had expected. And
gave a good fight. Means the story is getting interesting and fast
paced. I wonder how his tomorrow going to be when he knows that the
story is sitting on his sofa waiting to be read.......
Enough writing today, now i will also go off to sleep or i won't be
able to get up tomorrow in time. Bbye...Godspeed
