A Day's work on Life

This article talks about the daily life of a normal person and what abnormal impact it makes on life. Please review it and rate it as you seem fit.

I raise my head sleepily as my feel my bed shake violently. Earthquake! I think clumsily. But as my mind comes into focus and all my other senses gradually, I faintly hear the monotone ring-tone of my mobile. Oh! That was my alarm. Groggily, not bothering to open my eyes – hoping to continue the dream I was watching. It was quite good, I was really happy – I search for the cursed device so as to switch the alarm off. At last I get hold of it and switch the alarm off and hope to continue the dream. But barely five minutes of peace before I heard a rasp as my dad pulled the curtains aside and hear his husky voice say, “Wake up it’s 6:10!”
        My eyes snap open of their own accord. 6:10 AM! I exclaim to my dad as I jump down from my bed. I quickly wish God a ‘good morning’ as I do so. Damn! I’ll be late for my classes. I quickly and sleepily rush towards the bathroom to – well, you know for what. I start to walk towards the auto stand at 6:45 finally, after I had my mother forced a heavy meal upon me in the morning and making me wait before the open lift door so she could hand me my Lunch. I think furiously as I head towards my institute. Why this life is full of steep problems that we never seem to overcome? But there was no time to look for an answer as I reach my institute and rush into my class. ‘Looks like I made it just in time,’ I think to myself as our Zayed Sir enter the classroom seconds after I’d settled down.
        After the class that lasted almost one and a half hours, it was time for practical. That was the time I could take a breath in since morning as I was doing nothing but hurrying up to 9:00AM. Hurrying to catch up with lessons! I chuckle myself as I watch Ragini opening up her PC. She looked at me for a second and we greeted each other a ‘good morning’ just by nodding our heads. I patiently wait for my system to boot up as I look around the lab to catch up with more friends. I catch the eye of Nalini, who also works in the same firm as I do, and wish her a good morning too before I spot my system booted up properly and was now ready. Just as I was starting, Shobha patted my back and wished me a verbal good morning as she walked across the lab to take her classes. I returned her wish and got busy in doing whatever sir taught us. It took me 25 minutes to finish all the stuff. “Damn! How do you manage to do your practical so fast?” Nalini exclaimed as I walked past her in order to go out of the lab and meet with our P.D.P. faculty, Mr. Amit Chaturvedi. All the students in the institute say that I’m a favorite of Amit sir. Well I don’t know whether or not it is true or not. I simply wished sir a good morning and sir asked me how it is going on at my office and other stuff. I replied that everything was fine as I catch Nalini step out of the lab carrying her big black bag. That was the indication that it was 9:45 AM and was time to go to office.
I bade goodbye from Amit sir and walked out of my institute alongside Nalini only to see Shahi waiting for us across the road. She also works with us for the same firm. “Good Morning, Amit!” She wished me sweetly. I couldn’t help but smile a bit and return the wish, though not quite as sweetly as she did. We walked towards our office, Nalini and Shahi chatting on the way, while I was silent most of the way. After fifteen minutes, we reached our office and wished Danish and Suraj a good morning. They work in the sales department as we work in the office side. I’m the P.R.O. for the company while Nalini and Shahi work as computer operators. As we enter the office, we see Sneha just putting her bag in her drawer. By the looks of her, she only just arrived. She is the office receptionist. We all wished her a good morning and we all went towards our respective cabins. I sit next to the cashier, Sailender. I wished him a good morning, inwardly getting tired of all the ‘good morning’s, but silently I connected my laptop and waited for the first ‘wave’ of public to crash over me. And sure enough, barely 11:30AM, and all the ‘public’ in the world – or so it seemed – came over my desk. A part of them went in the cash counter and a part came over to my desk. “Mr. Amit, tell me this.” “Amit, give me that.” I kept on running from my desk to the office to the storeroom and then back on my desk. At 1:30PM, I got a bit free and decided to have my lunch. I called Shahi and Nalini and we together went to the storeroom to have our lunch. We three have lunch all together since day 1. Sneha doesn’t eat with us. She eats with the staff of the sales department. I don’t know whether or not she has a grudge against Nalini or Shahi and I didn’t care. I opened my lunchbox and with a grin I saw sandwiches. I picked up one and took a bite. I feel that my mom is the greatest cook in the world! We exchanged our lunch with each other. Nalini passed one of her handmade chapattis while Shahi passed me a large amount of chowmin. I gave them a sandwich each. We had our lunch, we gossiped for a bit and went back on our desks after washing our hands. This half, the ‘wave’ was quite thin. I thought of open my book and read for a while, but didn’t get the chance. Every now and again, I kept on glancing towards the watch, wondering when it’ll be 6 o’ clock and when it will be time to go home. An hour after another dragged and I kept loosing my patience. Finally, the glorious time came.
Quickly exchanging good byes with all the other staffs, we three quickly walked towards the Auto stand, chatting and laughing on the way. We were joined by Ragini coming out of her office. I fell beside Ragini and asked her how was her work going and all the other stuff. In no time at all – or so it seemed to me – we arrived at the forked road, the right one will lead Ragini towards her lodge while on the left there was the Auto stand. We jumped in one and as it moved, we talked about the craziest things in the world while all too soon, Shahi’s stop came along and then mine. I said goodbye to Nalini and walked towards the turn that’ll lead to my apartment and I found my friend Amit waiting there for me. Yes, we share one name. When known people cross us they shout a greeting, “Hello! Amit square! How are you both doing?” We really are very good friends. Inseparable, you can say. Together, we talked quite a lot. Not a single trash in our talks. Or maybe one or two trash topics. But whole of the community and my parents call us ‘Great Gossipers!”. We talk quite serious stuff, like about our future lives, our final goal in lives, our dreams and these kinds of stuff. We are also hardcore gamers and we also discuss about games a for a bit. “Hey, we’ve to go shopping real soon. Quite a few new gamzis have popped out! Hmph! Won’t they ever realize that we clear their gamzis within a week?” Amit exclaims. By shopping, he means game shopping. “Na man! I don’t think so. But, do you hear us complaining?” We laugh and part ways when the clock says it is 7:30PM. I press the button to summon the lift and get on it when it arrives. I press the button for my floor and guess what I do when my floor comes? Yea, right genius, I get off the lift!
Well, I get in my room after washing my hands and feet and putting away my shoes and shut the door and turn on my pc. My lovely sweet PC! With 2 GB of DDR 2 RAM, 17” Color monitor, Pentium Dual core processor, DVD writer and an nVdia 8600 Graphics card (and in India, that is saying something). I have a love for my PC that any other man or boy would have for his wife or girlfriend. I really love my PC. Well, I start playing the game I just installed, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. After playing 1 hour, the game stats said that I had cleared it 56%. Grinning to myself, I shut down my PC and at 9 o’ clock, I go in for dinner. After eating delicious chapattis and paneer curry that my mom made, I retire back to my room. My dad warned me not to stay up too late. I make a non-committal noise as I close the door of my room again.
This time, I connected the broadband internet connection and at 9:30, I came ‘online’. Chatting with friends (local as well as abroad), checking and sending emails and working hard to reach my goal that I’ve set for myself. In all that, I looked up at the watch when it said it was 2 AM.
Damn, one day gone again. I think to myself. And yet, as I shut my system down, I think, what did I achieve in this whole one day for life? Did this day made a difference to my life? Anything I did to achieve something in life? As I think so, I walk to the balcony attached to my room. I stand over there, looking at all the now darkened windows of all the apartments around our apartment.
All these people living around me, having and leading a life just like me, yet so unlike. My life has been quite strange and full of bumps and rough patches. Every time I go through quite a bumpy track of my life (and believe me, I do it more than often than you can think), I always think that I’ll have my share of highways after this patch. This, hopefully will be the last problem I face in my life. This is what gives me strength to face my problem and pin it down. But no sooner I raise my arms in victory, hoping to see ecstatic stuff; it turns out to be quite worse than the previous one I just defeated. I carry on my fight against all the hurdles and hindrances that life throws in my life.
I remember the past month when I had a fatal twin diseases attack on me and – according to the doctors – was a situation of life and death. I really suffered in the hospital a lot when I chose life over death, though the latter option was quite tempting given my condition then and all through my life. It was only me and my strength and with the help of God, I managed to come back home after remaining in the hospital merely eight days. I recovered, slowly, controlling my diet (that was a quite difficult thing for me you see, because I’m a food lover and love to eat), determined to live. I have decided never ever to bow down before life, never to accept my defeat. I’m determined to battle on until I’m crushed and defeated in the battle of life. But that is sure that I’m going to give life a run for its money before going down.
Tears roll down my cheeks as I remember my condition then. I remember past few months, a ‘friend’ betrayed me whom I’d thought to be my best, thought to be my well wisher. But after he left me I found out that he was just using me just as a sugarcane juice maker uses the sugarcane. I was heartbroken, but didn’t shed a drop of tear when I found that out.
But now, I find the steady flowing of my tears rolling down my eyes, and I make no effort to stop it. I remember that when finally when I felt well enough to join my office and stepped out of my home after one month. But barely three days later, when I thought that finally, now, I can at least have few months’ peace before I have to worry about the next hurdle of life, life struck again. One fine morning, when I was not even fully awake, I’d done nothing than to wish God a sleepy ‘good morning’ my phone rang and my friend informed me that I’d failed again in my exams. I didn’t feel a bit of grief in my chest, but I saw my mother cry sitting in front of God when she thought no one was watching. But I saw her, and then thought and worried that whether I had made the wrong decision by staying alive. I didn’t die, or rather, didn’t want to die because I didn’t want my family to suffer, to cry. But when I saw my mother crying, I felt a sudden but useless urge to go back to the hospital and die. But sadly, time can’t be reversed in life. I hated myself for this. What was the use of staying alive if I continue to make my parents unhappy? They’ve done their best to make me happy and instead, what have I given them? Nothing but tears, comes the answer to me myself as I start to cry louder. I wanted to scream crying, but could not as it was nighttime and people would wake up. Instead I satisfied myself by making a hoarse noise from my throat that made up for crying loudly. I cried like a little baby even though I’m 23 years old.
World is stupid, as I thought as I half – heartedly attempted to stop my crying. Why people in this world crave for more and more? Why aren’t they content by what they have? Everyone says that death is a part of life. Then why, people run away from dying? Why they always try to put off death even though they themselves say that death is inevitable?
Birds have wings to fly. But has anyone seen a bird attempting to fly towards the moon or any other planet? If birds are given wings, they were meant to fly. Man doesn’t have wings. Yet they go to the moon and now they are attempting to make another earth by trying all other planets in solar system. Doesn’t the thought of this makes you laugh?
Slowly, I stop crying. My heart felt light. At least I can cry well. I don’t know what I can do properly. At that moment, I felt quite helpless and a complete waste of life.
Then I remember all of what I went through in my 23 years of life. Surely, if God thought that I was a waste, then why would he put me through all this sufferings? Why would he even bother about making my life difficult? There must be a reason for it.
Then I remember what I’m trying to achieve in life. I think of all the efforts I’ve been making for the past seven years to reach my goal. Then I kind of start feeling good. Probably that is why my life is so difficult. He wants to check whether I can go right to the top or I’m going to crumble? Then I speak, directly to God, “I’ll never accept my defeat until life has defeated me. Good night.”
Climbing into my bed, I take a look at the clock. It was 3:45AM. Double damn, I’ve to wake again in the morning. Setting the alarm again in my mobile, I put the mobile under my pillow and try to continue the dream; the dream in which I was happy.
I walk though my life, being my destiny. As I roll over, I hear someone say, “Kid, don’t think that I’ve been making your life difficult in order to make you crumble. I’m instead trying to polish you into a rare gem. Just like a diamond. You are my diamond, and always remember what diamond goes through to be what it is! Good Night to you too.”

Author's Note

Just say What you feel

Reviews

[Imperfection]

I do not know how to review this because this is such a personal piece. I almost felt like an intruder inside your mind.
Sometimes life gives us more troubles than we'd imagined, much more than we are prepared for. In fact, everyday is a struggle. I recently read in an article that an average individual faces about 23 adversities every single day. But inspite of your troubles � big and small, emotional and physical � the way you motivate yourself is commendable, the manner in which you stimulate yourself to go on is what has made you strong-willed and determined to overcome your problems.
Thanks for allowing us a peek into your personal thoughts.

[Emily B]

I like the ending very much. Life is indeed an exercise before we are polished into gems.