Thursday, June 4, 2009

not your day

sometimes, the minute you wake up, you realize that it is not going to be your day. this feeling gets fortified if you have snoozed your alarm for a good 30 minutes and wake up a bit too late. hurriedly throwing away the covers, you rush to brush your teeth, only to find the tube of toothpaste empty...even the last bit squeezed unmercifully out of it. you desperately fight with the tube and manage a quick brush and hurriedly take a bath.

keeping an eye on the clock, you hastily dress up, only to discover that most of your work clothes are either in the laundry basket or needs ironing. you say 'what the hell' and jump into a god foresaken piece of clothing that you had stowed away in the bottom of your wardrobe. and by Murphy's law, you have a bad hair day (of course). having no time to grab a breakfast, you rush to the office. there you find that the meeting for which you had skipped the signals and broke some other traffic rules, got rescheduled to another day. with an air of resignation and an iota of satisfaction that you escaped attending the meeting in a dowdy dress and tangled hair, you proceed to the cafeteria. and there, a 'closed' sign greets you-maintenence.

obeying to the dictates of your growling stomach, you walk in to a nearby restaurent. upon entering, you are pleasently surprised to see your cousin dining there with her kid. your 2 year old nephew rushes up to you with a cry of joy and flings himself on you. 'ah! atlast. something good' you think and lift him up in your arms. a feeling of warmth and wetness spreads on you...leaky diaper. shit! literally. with your appetite ruined along with your dress, you stumble out of the restaurent and sneak out your car from the office car park and drive home.

switching off your mobile and shuckin off your pissed dress, you take a bath...again. then you dial up for a pizza. after an excruciatingly long 20 minutes wait, the pizza finally arrives. you devour it up unmindful of the sinfully fattening cheese and flop down on your couch. the next thing that you are aware of is the scent of wet earth and the relentless pounding of the rain on your window. squinting at the clock, you figure out that it is only early afternoon. you sightlessly stare at the downpour through your window, deliberating whether to make yourself a cup of tea or not. you mentally imagine the pleasure of sitting on the window sill and enjoying the rain while sipping a cup of hot ginger tea. but your body, too comfortable and content, refuses to give up the company of the couch.

after much procrastination, you stagger into the kitchen and make the tea. breathing in its aroma, you sit down at the window sill and take yor first sip. heaven. the next sip. and the rain stops. damn. you totally loose the mood to relish the tea and hurridly swallow down the rest of your cup.

to fill up the entire evening stretching ahead, you call up your friends and try to sell them the idea of going to the latest block buster movie. and as luck would have it, none of them are free. you feel so lonely and depressed that, for a momnet, you even seriously consider the preposterous idea of marrying someone. pushing aside the boringly chiched thoughts of self pity, you roll up your sleeves and start cleaning up your home. afterall, what better way than this to vent out the frustration? done with it, you look at the time. you realize that if you just hurry a bit, you can still catch up the movie. you dress up, grab your keys and drive to the multiplex. you supress a smile at the weird look given by the man at ticket counter when you asked for 'one ticket'. you buy a tub of popcorn and settle down in your seat to enjoy the movie...and you do end up enjoying it inspite of the distractions posed by the young lovers and couples siting on either side of you and infront of you. you leave the theatre and drive your car along the ECR, with the stereos blasting hard rock music and the needle of the speedometer pushing at 100kmph. finally, you turn around and start driving towards your home.

midway, enroute your car grinds to a halt. you turn on the ignition again and again. the car just sputters and dies away. you get out of the car. the road is empty and deserted. the streetlights are non existent. the empty, lonely street is pitch dark and a slow steady drizzle starts. you take out your mobile and make a call to your mechanic. at that time, you hear foot steps behind you. you turn around...and then......





and then you realize that its too late.... you realize that you cant write anymore tonight. you throw away the paper and pencil, switch off the light and go to sleep... dreaming about what will happen next.

11 comments:

மதி said...

at such times of a creator's lull , everything goes really dull . almost every other person who wields a pen would ve walked this path , and forcefully invite others to trod the same path .... they themselves not knowing where it leads. but on the way , they give the companion a worthy chat filled with trivia and whatever. together they walk the long road , decide that it leads to nowhere and turn back exchanging warm good byes and meet you soons .
warm goodbye and meet you soon !

மதி said...

இதை மாதிரி situationகாகவே தமிழில் ஒரு dialogue இருக்கு .... 'கொய்யாலே எனக்கு மட்டும் ஏண்டா இப்படி நடக்குது ? '

Aravind Ravi said...

you are a dab hand at fiction and a swell mystery writer...my god...this piece was like watching a short film without knowing what genre is it..its so alive...i wish u would write more short stories...

aswin jayaraman said...

Impressive...As you had already told me there is a twist in the ending na athaye ethir paathutrunden..Neat job anyways..cheers

Vikram Kumar said...

Arunaaaa...!! Soooper...
A tidy peiece if work.. It is intelligent, witty,and vibrant. I totally love the way you write.. Simple and expressive-without being flamboyant..It’s in simplicity that true geniuses can be found… :p :D
Nice one.. Cheers.. :)

Subramaniam said...

Inspite of a title that says "not your day" it just made me enjoy a whole five minute reading. This is a very good instance of how a bad day is expressed in a rather pleasent way. So it is special in its own regard that its a positive expression of negativities. I mean it could have been a bad day for you, but it sure was a good laugh for me!

Guru Prasaad said...

heyya, ur entire blog s super cool.. m a compl stranger 2 u, i jus found tis page randomly.. i liked t.. keep posting.. :)

Vinod Ramamoorthy said...

All in a Day(dream's) work ! :)

Good one..

a said...

@guru and vinod

thanks for taking time to read through my blog. :)

Praveen said...

ah..thr's something spl abt female writers :)

Krishnan said...

Aruna good work, each and every person facing and living with these problems. At that time i left out my car go to home and sleep well and we will se tomorrow