It has been an unusual day. Not the calendar day, but the duration from 7.00 pm yesterday to 7.00 pm today. This time period has brought me experiences that have truly made me happy, along with an inexplicable sense of satisfaction.
My day began with a phone call to R. He is about six years younger to me, and our families have known each other for over fifteen years. But since we have been moving around quite a bit, it was only in the last year or so that I have really gotten to know the real wonderful person that R is. This was just an ordinary phone call, no special reason, and we talked. Well, it was more like he talked, and I listened. Conversation is not really my forte, and this guy R, he is an excellent conversationalist; a laughter-riot. May be that wise someone was thinking of R, when he coined the ‘capable-of-selling-ice-to-an-Eskimo’ bit. Despite this lopsided long distance talk, our banter and camaraderie has left a smile on my face, that is making me feel so happy within.
I know R will be the guy who will secretly count the number of ‘right’-s in my conversation (I use the word right quite often), and will gladly tell me the same just to irk me. But that’s fine with me because both of us know that I think of him as the brother I never had!
(There, now I feel my faint smile widening into a big grin:)
After this phone call, which must have lasted about three hours, I looked into some job related stuff, which I have been procrastinating for a long time now. I knew this would take up a lot of my time, and I needed it this way, because I wanted to stay awake to wish my mother early in the morning of 26th January for her birthday.
After the telephonic talk with my parents, I resumed my work, only to be interrupted by someone on Gtalk. Turned out that he was my mate from University days. We had fallen out of touch, and it was good catching up with him after around four years.
I returned back to my work-stuff after this, only to find that I was unable to make sense of what I was reading. After much coaxing and I-can-do-it talks, I decided to watch The Italian Job. This was recommended to me by R over the phone, and I don’t regret spending time over it. Infact I loved the movie. By the time the movie ran into the credits, it was 5.30 am, and I got back to my work with a happy state of mind. And surprise! I had a minor breakthrough in my work! Yes, it’s minor, but I know if I use this ‘window’ properly, it could lead me to my aim.
So to celebrate this, and to ease my aching back, I decided to make myself a cup of ginger tea (my favourite beverage ever). It was close to 7.00 am now, and I was excited that I actually could see the sun rise in a short time. I love sunrises, but I am a late-riser, so you can figure how often I grant myself this simple joy. Having made the tea, I walked with my cup to the window beside my writing table, all eager to combine two of my loves in a single moment – ginger tea and sunrise. But, I think it wasn’t meant to be so, as it was still quite dark outside. All I could see from the window was the city skyline with the occasional patches of yellow and white lights piercing through the blanket of darkness. It was beautiful, but not what I was looking for. So I decided to return back to my desk, to savour my drink before it got cold. I took a sip, and it was as usual refreshing. And like the many hundred times, I involuntarily told myself that that was the best cup of tea I had ever made.
I finished the tea, and decided to listen to this song Aao Na from Kyon Ho Gaya Na. I had loved this song even when the movie was new, but ever since I catched it on YouTube a week back, it has been continually playing in my mind. I took a look at the window to see if the sun had decided to rise, but that wasn’t the case. So I sank back into my chair, stretched my legs, put on my head-set, closed my eyes and played the song. As before, I enjoyed the song for its lovely music and good lyrics; particularly the line - Sun sako dhadkanein, itne pass aao na. “This is beautiful,” I mused to myself and opened my eyes. But something looked different now. It took me a couple of seconds to realise that it was not just my table lamp that was illuminating my desk, but there was sunlight falling on to my monitor from the adjacent window. The sun had long been up!
Disappointed, I walked up to the window and saw that the street lamps were switched off. The Opel showroom a few kilometers away still had the light on on the huge O-P-E-L sign. Closer home, I looked down and found a man walking his big dog; cars were parked in a neat line along the road-side; lots of swaying bare tree-tops; a single nest, probably an empty one; the tall building with the grotesque yellow-violet exterior that stood out among the other sober ones. That was what I saw: my new surroundings. The missed sunrise was out of my mind by then, and I found myself looking at the scene from my window with joy; for this was the first time since I moved into this apartment about twenty days back, that I had consciously taken note of my surroundings. I had known this place for the past three years, so when the place came up for rent I just moved in without much thought. But that moment at the window was like forging a tryst with my future in this house.
The rest of the day was quite uneventful, except that when I woke up from my sleep around 4.00 pm, the first thing that I did was to walk up to the window and let myself soak in the view that lay ahead. A new day had just begun…
Edited to add: Looks like the 'good' streak is still running. I logged into my blogger account and found the first ever (well, two actually) comment(s) on this blog. :) The reason for the extra happiness is that these are from Tharini, whose writing and thoughts I have come to admire over the last couple of months.
Thanks, Tharini! I couldn't have had a more 'welcome' welcome to the blog world! :)
