Questioned Existence??

“Aye babu, ek rupiya de do nah, ba-hut bhook lagi hai”. (Sir give me some money, I am really hungry), While I was busy reading the train schedule at the platform, these words fell into my ears to break my concentration. I turned around to find a lame beggar leaning on a wooden shaft. He seemed to have given his a go by to a bath for months. His unkempt hair, dark and dirty face, torn and tattered clothes spoke volumes about his misfortune and amidst which an innocent smile lit up his face, a complete metaphor. A closer look revealed that he not only was lame but also had lost an arm and that only one which helped him to beg for his existence. As I kept staring at him, he continued tugging my trouser and kept repeating those lines.

For the next few seconds my mind was completely blank, as if my senses had stopped functioning, the hullabaloo around me didn’t seem to affect my existence then and that I had almost forgotten about my next step.

His failure to fish out something from me compelled him to shake me harder and that I got back to this world with a big jolt. Immediately and hurriedly I took out a five-rupee coin and kept it in a small bowl on his lap. Mechanically he smiled at me (that seemed a contended one) and moved ahead to find the next alms giver and was gradually lost amidst the crowd. But my eyes continued to follow him till he disappeared and that several thoughts began to play in my mind while I was walking carelessly in the platform. Why exist an inequality when the creator is the same? We keep cribbing about what we do not posses but fail to thank for what we have but this poor soul who has been denied the basic things in life has smilingly accepted it and that continues to do so.

As my mind was interplaying with such thoughts, I heard a hustle-bustle at a distant corner. Soon my eyes caught upon a pathetic sight ~ the poor, feeble tramp was being beaten black and blue by the policemen on the platform. The helpless creature kept lamenting in pain but no one came to his rescue. Instead some had gathered around them to watch the heinous scene, while the others didn't even bother to take a notice. In the mean while my train had arrived and I was lucky enough to make myself comfortable on one of the seats. I am skeptical about the fate of that vulnerable character but my brain kept hovering over the fact "Are we here just because we have to be? Was he actually leading a life, if at all we can call it a life…"

The Busy Bees...

Well, that was another cup of coffee that found place in my tummy. A monitor is glaring at me and I am its undisputed master, hands keep juggling between the keyboard and the mouse. Eyes do try to take a sneak peek of the surrounding to return to its usual place without finding much to feel too good about anything. No wonder why it is said “ What’s there in the look unless it is returned”?

Right at the bottom is time ticking away and informs me that it is 4:12 pm. Another 2 hours and 18 minutes to go (mind you, the time remaining has not been mentioned in just lose terms, that’s very much precise and adhered to). The environment around me is calm, no talking and murmuring. Let alone finding people standing on someone else’s cubicle, to discuss something as trivial as work or something as crucial as the batting by the Indian team in the match last evening. Otherwise you find all glued to their machines (no matter what they are doing), that too if one is not good enough, then there those who are making the best of their extended desktop. No clue how it aids, well that’s really not our area of concern.

We survive an era where technology rules us and we happen to be mere puppets in its hand. The ambition to stand out as a winner of this rat race has compelled us to stretch ourselves more than required and no question why companies offer laptops to their employees so that they can extract the most out of them. I too happen to be a slave of this master called technology but then I refused to accept its bossing at home thus declined the offer of possessing a laptop. I marvel what you must be thinking about me? Such a workaholic place with an equally serious ambience, with me as the only useless soul scribbling this piece of gibberish at the peak hours. Yes! I am probably the most useless individual here now, but then I can only refine the reason mentioned here.

Actually people working in the software industry are identified with cribbing and nagging about the amount of the work they have to deal with. Although it’s a white collared job but it’s a ‘black and white’ world that’s frustrating and boring. And as we know that the word of mouth navigates faster than the wind to popularise any negative beliefs thus who so ever enters this globe comes with a preconceived notion and a phobia to find that the ultimate truth is far away from reality.
On one hand there are those who toil at their respective work places till the dead hour of the night while on the other are those who spend idle hours with their machines to be billed to the client for the day. Why does this piece of information never evaporates from these small cubicles much like the other part of the story?

I believe life here is a project driven vehicle that depends largely on the geography of the client. It gives you the jump-start with the best of technologies, salaries followed by hikes and perks at the cost of time and compromises. But then that is what life is, is it not?