As the rains lashed the city Sandhya walked past a puddle. The dark clouds made the evening even darker. The air had a strange smell of earthiness coupled with smoke emitting from the cars. A concoction of mud, smoke, sweat and sea. The street lights were yet to glow. She felt like jumping into it and splashing the muddy water all around. She controlled her urge and walked past like a careful citizen. How she loved the rains and how much she loved the drizzle that touched her cheeks. The promotions had just been announced and she had made it to the list, but was she elated? She looked around, the city was abuzz with honks, traffic and people swarming the roads. The rains are a thing of beauty but in this city it only added to the chaos. She was flooded with congratulatory messages by her family, friends and colleagues. She found a shade near a shop and lit her cigarette. She was already bored with her job, with the city and with the same people around. She had explored all weekend getaways, all the happening places she could think of. Had she been in a different country which offered more job security, she would have left her job for a year or so and would have learnt some new skill. But this country offered no such thing. There were too many people clamouring for the same position. She became restless. She crossed the road and started walking along the sea line. It was now drizzling so she took off her raincoat and flung open her Umbrella. A small boy came running towards her, with a pot in one hand and another hand holding glasses, offering hot piping tea. He wore a flimsy jacket made out of polyethene. She looked at the boy. He was around nine with dishevelled hair and apparently was in a hurry. He was trying to guess whether she would buy the tea or should he not waste his time on her. Sandhya liked the searching and cunning look in his eyes and bought the tea for herself. She did not take even a sip of the tea and threw it in the nearest dustbin. She turned back to check where the boy was, but the boy had already run his marathon and was nowhere in her sight. She was bored to death with her human resource profile in the office. She was constantly updating her resume to find another job at least in some other company. If not the profile at least the colours of the walls and the roof will change. She was very fervently checking for jobs in scenic cities like Gangtok, Shimla or for that matter Uttarakhand. Enough of the sea, let’s explore the mountains now. But it was to an extent laughable and her search was not even serious. She again turned back and saw numerous boys and vendors offering snacks with tea and soup. She thought to herself that marketing could have been an excellent field for her. At least some colour in her job profile. She liked meeting many people, although she never befriended them but just to have a small chat or so she mingled with everyone. She loved to travel in crowded buses to observe the moods and fancies of different people, right from the bus conductor to a middle-aged woman. She remembered once she was travelling in a bus and how the woman who sat next to her felt relaxed during this time of travel. There was no boss on head and no family to look after during the commute time. She had finished most of the novels in the bus. The different characters in the novel occupied her mind for the time being and took her away from the present time. Sandhya’s mind wandered from that woman to her current status. Some five years back she never thought about a marketing job. She never liked the sales profile. Plus, she was very, very excited about her current job. While growing up, one’s life changes so quickly that there is no time for monotony to set in. Once the student life is over, the thrill of setting foot in office and real adulthood is incomparable. A phone call brought her back into the real world. Another congratulatory call. After disconnecting the phone, she pushed the silent mode option on her mobile and forgot all about it. She always wore a watch to avoid checking her phone for time else like a Bermuda triangle the phone gets you into a never lasting spiral of checking and responding to messages. Sandhya saw a woman wearing a salwar kameez sitting on the bench and sobbing silently. She saw her dialling somebody’s number on her phone. She went near her and stood near a tree pretending to check her whats app messages. Eavesdropping is something she detested but this rule was not applicable on herself. The woman was depressed. It seemed that she was unmarried and was working in some banking or insurance sector. She could not guess the real job profile of the woman. She was talking in chaste Hindi and didn’t have the local accent. She had also been promoted. That’s what Sandhya gathered from her conversation. She now came closer to her and sat on the same bench for better hearing. She pulled out her kindle from her bag and pretended to read. She was happy that somebody else is also like her who doesn’t care about promotions that much. She seemed to be an interesting character to her and she thought of striking a conversation with her. She sounded extremely unhappy and depressed, not depressed actually but agitated. She was willing to let go off her promotion if she stays in the same city. Now, that was some surprise for Sandhya. The last thing she spoke was that in no way she will shift to Darjeeling as its too far from her home town and she is not comfortable shifting base every now and then.
Sandhya laughed, got up from there and ventured in another direction. The similarities ended there. If only there was a magic wand, she could have exchanged her situation with her. How happy it would have made both of them. If only.
