I was travelling through the city to reach my workplace as usual on a very cool Sunday morning (45 degree C). In the midst of the beads of tiny droplets of perspiration rolling down my forehead I imagine a surreal life in the beckoning. Oh yes I did work on 1st May too!!

As the reckless driver manoeuvered the vehicle through narrow lanes of shattered asphalt and crowded streets, the guilt of working for a living engrossed my otherwise deluded mind. The comfort of owning a cell phone, an access point to stay connected to the circles of friends and family through the internet, the privilege to travel around the places of interest, the provision to spend money on all the needs and luxuries and above all to stay healthy with a proper dosage of essential nutrients.

I mean common I should have had a better life than this! The pain with which I managed to graduate is a testimony to my belief. There were days when I just woke up to have a good square meal! The day began with hangout at a local restaurant or beverage shop irrespective of time. There was pocket money to lavish upon and then there was corruption when the fuel ran low down the pocket! Ever imagined a life working? Oh no, not me please.

Ramanuj the driver is 32 years old and from a place near Patna in Bihar. He has five children. The fifth one is a boy aged 12. Candid about the soaring temperature, Ramanuj swears he wouldn’t consume beer in the evening. Honking, screeching, buzzing and offcourse hustling is the environment with almost a third of a quarter of a million population in the city vacationing to have a piece of daily chores. The vehicle still has some life running down its crux of the system although it is not equipped with the facility of Air-conditioning nor with a music system. She must be handled with care I say to Ramanuj as he reluctantly fidgets to get her down to gear 2.

What do you want to do after graduation? What are your interest s in the field of graduation? Ohh did you read about the latest technologies that has changed the way of work in that field? You intend to pursue Masters? Which is your dream company? Why didn’t you attend the campus placements? You could have atleast given the writtens, I know a co-ordinator in the placement cell, she could have got you through the back door! You done with your project work? What are you going to do for a living? My parents wont allow us to be together if you don’t work!!

Quiet a day it has already been and we haven’t even travelled half our way to the office, says Jeetu the office boy. Jeetu hails from a small town in Uttar Pradesh and heavens lord I don’t get an idea how he landed into this current profile. However, Jeetu doesn’t complain a lot about his responsibilities unlike me. He is focussed and knows his job very certainly. With so many thoughts around a single point in time I wonder why the research psychologists are not taking a que of me. The vehicle unexpectedly growls to a halt. A traffic jam sir says Ramanuj. It couldn’t have gotten better I whispered. To hell with the job, I am returning back to home I said for the zillionth time to myself. It is challenging to work on a Sunday and even more enduring to work for a reason of stupidity. Not that I work smartly, the systems and processes in an uncontrolled organizational structure can be most of the times unpleasant. Beat it when you have cross functional reporting managers. An obligation hard to deny knowing the political background of the great motherland called India.

Hey bro where are you? What are you doing these days? How is life? Don’t be low, we are there for you. We shall find a way out! Think out of the box buddy! Do you still hangout at the cafeteria? There is an opportunity in our organization, shall I send a reference? Goa? Goa? Goa? We never missed Goa man, what happened to you? It was awesome. Remember when we stayed in the shack opposite to the rocky mountains last year? We stayed at the Taj this time. Amazing man. I wish I get an good appraisal this year. Hey bro, bro, bro. Seriously I never realised when my name was changed to bro, my name still in the graduation certificate stands as it is. Some things are weird in life I should say. A lot of things happen in a blink and a lot of things still remain the same even after decades.

She is drenched from top to toe. She soesn’t even bother to carry a umbrella. With a half broken incisor and a lot of reddish pink colored tobacco in her mouth she refuses to go home without a good deal for the investment made. A heap of fresh potatoes and onion lay in front when she adjusts the weight in the balance. A routine day for her at the office I imagine. Might have invested X amount for the day with an expectancy of returning back to her cottage with X+n amount, n being a positive integer. So she might be doing this on a daily basis. Money comes in and money goes out. Does she maintain a balance sheet? Any tax liability she is entiltled too? Does she consult a Chartered Accountant to prepare the profit and loss account? How does she do it? Does she pay bribe/rent to sell products not on her property? What if she doesn’t find the customers to increase her net profit margin? Does she borrow money from lenders/bank? What rate of interest she borrows if she is getting support from a Self Help Group? Does she give enough time towards her family? She ever cry? She ever had fear? Is it out of necessity? How does she manage it? How does she defend competition? What is the discounted rate of return? What might be the payback period of her investment? What are her marketing strategies and how does she decide upon the location of doing business?

You are a charming young guy. You intend to settle in life son? Hey there is jaw dropping offer on this flat, you should really invest in this! There is this girl in our community who has completed her masters would you like to see her? And so the unending pro’s and con’s list is prepared sub-consciously and surprise me if there is chance of the latter being weighed out by its competitor. The brave few still manage to fight out like the great Hector up untill death, only to realize that it is their pride and disbelief to let down the close associates. I confide in the boundaries of the society.

Still curios as to where this is leading too? I should ask the same to myself. A few points although which shall surely be useful in thy conquest of life shall be from the documentary I watched a couple of weeks earlier. Some motivational quotes I remember states that “You are the creator of reality”. “What you resist is what you perceive”. In conjunction I also remember other quotes such as “Creativity is the residue of time waste”. “Some people see things as they are and ask why, I dream of things that were never there and ask why not”. It says that there is basically only two types of emotion. The one which is Good and the other is bad. It is known as the emotional guidance system. Once a person starts to think about a particular scenario in life as good, all other things irrespective of circumstances and situations begin to feel and become good. The same implies to the opposite of it too. When a person is actually thinking about the things not achieved/received, the person is actually activating the emotional guidance system to keep thinking about the unachieved/unreceived substance. In effect consequential Domino effect induces a whole scenario of circumstances leading to unpleasant observations. It continues to say that the secret lays in three distinct conditions;

1. Ask

2. Answer

3. Receive

Ask what you want out of your life. Keep looking out into the box of possibilities you best think is/will bring happiness to you. Decide upon the final possibility. Having completed the task of asking, start answering the questions that arise. The solution is there in front of you. Just need to know the way to reach it. Most famous people knew what they wanted to do but never recognized HOW they wanted to reach there. Keep working towards your objectives the path shall unfold along the way. The penultimate condition is to receive your thoughts and guide it in order to realize the dream/endeavor.

It sounds a bit awkward but Ramanuj did borrow 100 bugs to get high on the beer he sweared he wouldn’t think of consuming on that day!