All this while, the tasteless
mind has been plagued by questions. These sharp-edged questions keep protruding
out like active ulcers on passive skin. Causing anguish, demeaning desires,
these questions compel us to probe deep into a proverb, which reads: PURPOSE
FUELS PASSION. In a life as domestic as ours, the ‘purpose’ seems to have gone
missing.
The sun is yet to come to life.
The alarm goes off at 5 AM sharp. Switching off the AC, crawling out of the
bed, contracting and expanding the eyes, inhaling the remains of last night and
exhaling the so called depravity of sleep; we tell ourselves, “Wake up, time to
go”. The door leads to the bathroom, the bathroom gives way to the washbasin,
the washbasin sports a hefty tap, which we turn on and push a toothbrush deep
inside to help us sport a million dollar smile, cavity free jawline, fresh
breath (in case, smooching tops the agenda). After the residues of the previous
night’s half-digested food finds a way down the flush, we are equally free to
declare ourselves ‘Fresh’.
Postponing the bath, we sprint
towards the kitchen; boil a glassful of water, slice a lemon into two, undo the
lid of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali honey and consume it to make a statement, “We
are health conscious”. It is 5:40 AM by now, we decide to embark on an
excursion of a home that belongs to us, exploring deep corners, which hide in
them a dead cockroach, a group of paralyzed mosquitoes, a nano crew of marching
ants and a spider busy spreading a web to trap them all. Sorry we are in no
mood to give these pests a free hand; we pull out the broom, rescue them from
the circle of life and death and release them dead or alive straight into the
dustbin. Thereafter we continue with the broom, trying not to fly on it but
sweeping the floors and other surfaces. By 6 AM, we are out. Huffing, puffing
and sweating heavily. This part is globally known as ‘Physical Workout’. By
6:45 AM, we are back to wake up the other members of the home. The God, the
wife, the mother, the washing machine, the gas oven and the milk over it, the
refrigerator and of course the music system.
The wife and the mother have got
their own agendas to chase. If wife and mother are both professionals, boarding
the 8:45 AM Mumbai Fast tops the list. Prior to that the moral responsibility
of cooking a storm keeps them engaged. Oh shit, it is 8:15 AM. If we don’t
leave now, the train (even though starting from where we stay) might get
crowded. We run down all the staircase, blow the horn to signal our concern
over a supposed delay in making. The wife follows in 50:50 makeup; the rest of
it will be taken care of in the train. While we are busy finding a parking
space, the wife is already running for the train. We run, board the train and curse
those who opt for a return journey from the station prior to ours. The train
comes to a halt, the wife alights somewhere else. After we alight, we take a
look at the watch and release a sigh of relief. This part is officially known
as ‘the train is running on time’.
Humping and thumping we reach our
offices, welcomed by the security guard at the reception, we sign in and
traverse smoothly through the biometric passage. We settle down and start
fondling with the PC, Laptop, Tablet and IPad that serves as our connection to
the outside world. This part is universally called ‘being in office’. Till
lunch hour, we try to figure out what are we supposed to do. We make phone
calls to our loved ones to know their statuses; has the wife reached her office
safely? Did mother have her breakfast? What is the bank balance for today? Boss
comes in, doesn’t smile, doesn’t react, doesn’t interact and then we scream out
‘communication gap’. Post the lunch hour, we associate ourselves with some
menial tasks, which fail to make us feel proud; we gape, we ape, we yawn, we
curl and by the time our mind starts concentrating on the tasks at hand, it is
it time to leave. Leaving office on time is considered sin in an advertising
agency (or perhaps the advertising industry). The moment, we decide to pack up,
the client servicing team members come hunting for us. We step out, our phones
ring, we are requested to come back to the office and there we are fondling
with computer again. Time doesn’t stand still, decisions are postponed,
feedback never shared; frustrated and irritated, we call it a day. This part is
called ‘finally out of office’.
Once again we are at the station,
waiting impatiently for the train to arrive. Even though the indicator predicts
an arrival within three minutes, many a times, the train seems to have
disappeared. The train arrives, we barge in; finding a seat is a rare
opportunity if at all we board the train from another destination rather than
the point of its origin. We get back to the destination, we started from in the
morning. And once again, we are back home. We bathe, we refresh and we settle down
for dinner. We switch on the television, make an attempt to stay up late to
catch a movie, we had long heard about but never thought of watching. The eyes
start trembling, beg for sleep and naturally we are back to the bed again. The
AC is switched on and there we are, indulged in sleep, lost in nightmares and
getting lost somewhere, before the alarm rings again.
Days and nights fade, we follow
the same routine. Then comes a day when we ask, “What is the purpose we are
pursuing in our lives?”
A long silence ensues.
Purpose lost, purpose gained;
only this time, it is not the one…we had been thinking about!
-Virtuous Vociferous
