Lord of the Wings – Trilogy part 3

A cold cup of tea (not sure how long it’s been lying there) and 20 unread emails have been keeping each other busy. As I interrupt their tryst with a fleeting look at the crosses on my ‘to do list’ it’s almost like sticking a finger in the face of time. It’s only been 8 hours after all. A sense of achievement. A short one, as there’s still twice as much left to do than the number of hours on the clock for today. But Rome wasn’t built in a day. Do you think the line would work in my defense? Yeah, thought as much.

At one point, I stood in the corridor, lost, feeling invisible. Looking through the blades of paper floating to the floor, I struggled to find my sense of balance. From a participant, I became the spectator. There was occasional eye contact with some seasoned performers (seemed like a couple of hours were taken off their clock as well), a few casual discussions around the poof, about the miscalculated master stroke from the match before, a few made plans for the evening, subconsciously knowing that’s probably as far as they’ll get. Some had given into the ‘brain dead syndrome’ for the day, a few grieved faces were returning from a ‘we’d like to see more options’ kinda meeting. Just then I was rudely awakened with sounds of ‘Benchod! kahan tha’ I exchange a gauche smile and leave the two to discuss ‘aaj client ki le li’.

You know you’ve arrived when taxi drivers haggle over dropping you home (the lucky one earns ‘post midnight fares’) I feel special nonetheless. It’s now 2 am, I silence my phone after receiving an sms from a friend requesting me to stop by his place the morning after and carry a change of clothes, since he’ll be spending yet another night at work.
My last stop, like a devotee to her shrine is dropping off layouts at the Clients reception for first thing tomorrow morning (just incase if it affects India’s economy). The security greets me with ‘madam kal kyun nahin aaye, office band tha kya’ (translates to madam, how come you didn’t drop anything by yesterday, was your office shut?) and you know you’ve definitely arrived. Too bad there was no face book back then, I would have been in the running for ‘the most popular’.

Tonight, my soul does not have the energy to drag itself to a media launch for a fun filled pretentious evening of cautioning the wind! I curl back into my taxi seat, as my magic carpet whisks me into the night with just enough time (what seems plenty on some nights) before I can snooze the alarm at 6:30 again to change the world yet another day…