The only on-off affairs you have are with the television. You use the adjectives “tender”, “gentle” and the like only with food- the kind that you aren’t getting. You start the sentence “I love...” and end it with Christopher Nolan, Sheldon Cooper or the guy in that stupid dance video . You know you’re having a mineral water overdose when you think Sprite “tastes funny”. You’ve spent your entire weekend switching between sleeping and lying down with the laptop on your lap. You’ve been disconnected from the Internet since the past week (you care to keep count in hours and minutes) but still know that you haven’t posted on your blog in June- a fact that keeps hurting you in your sleep. You’re sitting at work in a 110-country, 115,000-employing MNC reading “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” while people around you try and protect substations.
It’s clear that you’ve been reading only Douglas Adams in the recent past when even the phrase “at sixes and sevens” seems to have a connection to 42, to you. It’s also not surprising that the aforementioned phrase applies to you perfectly. Murphy’s Law has been at its, well, veritable best, to be most etymologically correct. You take hours of explaining in your most heavily accented Hindi that you want a mobile connection without residence proof in four shops and when you finally catch hold of that elusive SIM card, your handset gives up on you. Your one connection to friends and family is gone.
The best pastime I’ve had over the days I’ve spent here in a place which excuses itself by adding “Bangalore” at the end of its address, apart from marvelling at the wonderful weather here, is precisely what I’m doing right now- not whining, but typing. The “First Intern” folder in my documents has a document named “Work Log” which is more of a daily bloopers collection. There’s another named “Weekend Log” which doesn’t have much because, as mentioned earlier, I don’t do anything worth writing home about. There are also a few score drafts I’ve typed but haven’t saved because they’re either too morose or too romanticist or clearly show that I’ve been watching a lot of The Big Bang Theory episodes repeatedly. My best friend is my keyboard, and the screen gives me angry glares as I keep typing. There’s no phone to talk to Ma and feel better. There’s no room nearby to drop by to chat and feel better. There’s no Internet to find others to talk to and feel better. And, just when you need it the most, there’s not even a thought to make you feel better. At best, you try and recite Betty Botter and the story of her butter and how she felt better, but her feeling better makes you bitter that you aren’t feeling any better. Bugger.
Loneliness isn’t a good feeling. Solitude- yes. Loneliness- no.
(Published on June 14, 2009 at 10:57 p.m.)
10 comments:
The other ultimate question begs to asked:
Are they paying you?
P.S: How come you don't have net access?
Moor-ta, steal a phone. Or just Beg/Borrow in case you have scruples.
I gather you're not exactly having the time of your life, but then, that's what work is all about. Slug it out somehow and try for a foreign sting next summer.
@ Shreyas
No, they're not. The acknowledgement letter reads "in-plant training". Good fun it was, though. More later.
@ Lefta
I had free STD SMSing there! I had no idea you'd mailed your number, and I forgot to take it from Rapster. Keep in touch, though, I shall.
And the later part's exactly what I told my mother on the phone sometime when I did get hold of one.
Moor-ta, You've been in my city :P
Till when ayoo gonna be (t)here?
And yeah solitude as you ve said, surely is awesome. Loneliness sucks though...
Strange, you never mentioned the coffee machine. And I find it a tad strange that you found B'lore girls disappointing.
By the bye, foreign stings aren't worth the trouble, if you ask me. Messrs Tidda and Tatta would beg to differ, I'm sure.
@ Raghav
Got back yesterday. And, I have fallen in love with your city- once again.
@ Dela
Patience, master. This was the first week- not the best of the three. The best was yet to come, even in the ladies area.
dooda...
You say it was lonely and boring on one hand and then you say, it was good fun though! Wass' goin' on?
Just when I thought, Murtha is improving, he has balance on his cell these days, the free STD SMSs come into the picture!
Somethings never change, do they?
@ Jetty
As I wrote, that was just the end of the first week. I guess you'd just have to read the rest, too!
And, yes, I took my time choosing my connection :)
Oh,and how did i miss the free sms part? nice :)
@ Raghav
Oh, my apologies. As I said, my phone got hung up and I had only the contacts from my first year on the Roorkee SIM so I couldn't keep in touch with you fellas.
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