Life Changers

For few weeks now, things have been tough. But don’t worry; this is not a crib post. I hate cribbing in public as it basically means either I can’t handle it myself or I have run out of friends who can handle it for me. This post is about something that happened over the last 24 hours of my life.

The way it began was scary. There were deadline pressures like the usual and I was just keeping my neck above water when suddenly my laptop crashed. I knew it was coming but I hadn’t expected it so soon. So the IT support team asked me to submit my laptop by 5:00 pm.

That was a shocker. I realized all of a sudden that I didn’t know what to do at 5 in the evening on a Friday if I had the chance. Today I did have the chance and as I said I didn’t know what was to be done. Coming out of Office at 5:30 for the first time in 2009 seemed unrealistic and yet it stared me at the face.

I realized that somewhere in the mad rush of Mumbai I was losing myself. Work home work cycle, though virtuous, as it pays my restaurant bills, was making me into someone I was not. I was once a person who knew what could be done in the city he was living at whatever time of the day or the night.

Luckily for me, two friends called up and both wanted to be out of office by 6. And there it was - Friends to the rescue again. We hurried to Metro and sneaked into the theatre to watch Public Enemies. (In an aside, a great watch and highly recommended for the sheer directorial brilliance) In the interval, in search for comfort food, we walked up to the Gelato parlour where we ordered our sinful desserts. But imagine our surprise when they said, they can’t give us a spare cup as all cups are counted!

Imagine!!!

Now a lady behind me suddenly spoke up. “You do miss the good old Dinshaw at times like this. Don’t you?” Wait, was I hearing her right? Was a full blooded SoBo considering me a part of her clan? She was talking to me about Dinshaw? I ran down the stairs so that my tears of joy would not be seen by her.

After the movie, we realized we were poorer by quite a bit and had to recover the money. And since still we didn’t know what to do at 8:15 in the evening on a Friday night, we took a BEST bus ride back to the suburbs.

Well, I remember the Chuck and Larry movie for one reason. There is a line that goes, “this shows to what extent a friend can go for another friend.” And I think the bus ride was one like that. And frankly it didn’t disappoint.

Look to be very frank, I have been droning along for so long because I wanted you to get bored and leave halfway. But then there’s a limit to that. So if haven’t stopped reading, here’s the meatier part with all the blood and gore.

I have been neglecting my cycle for the last ten days or so and thus I gave it for a complete servicing. While I was on my way back and my “Tour de Khar”, a speeding auto came and hit me from behind. According to physics, the force required to displace a body with a substantial mass is also substantial. So luckily for me, I didn’t fly away to the other world, but rather lay sprawled on the road at the side.

You see, I am a safe cyclist. I observe road rule and travel only to my extreme left. But as I lay down and saw the truck behind me screech to a halt, I realized somewhere I was loosing the plot. When I was old enough to read, I had read Ulysses the Poem and had always wanted to drink life to the lees, even before SRK came and said, Khao Piyo Jeo Muskurao, Kya pata kal ho na ho. And I was forgetting that. I was working over weekends trying to beat the clock and I wasn’t slowing down to say hi to a lot of people who mattered.

So a crashed laptop that didn’t allow me to work the weekend, a freak accident and friends, I guess all these three together were making a point.

I guess this is what you would consider as a wake up call.