The ascend – halted at 3-4 places, one even very close to the base, even thought about turning back. Heart was pounding, beats blocking out every other sound. A cool breeze, inspite of the blazing sun, and a few toddlers making their way uphill inspired me to tread forward.
The descend – Took no halts, a tender coconut drink around the base of the hill against a setting sun backdrop, seemed like the best reward of the day.
A 5 day exhaustive search culminated with ordering the best scrabble board. My 3 days of hourly tracking for it ended on a Sunday. I played 3 rounds on Sunday, 2 on Monday, skipped on Tuesday, then I never played. That was 6 months ago.
On day 2 of my search for a chess board!
She approached the unfamiliar door and nervously took the key from her pocket. She took a deep breath, unlocked the door, paused, then opened it. To her horror she saw a writing board with her name written on it, “Dorothy Francis – 22-Jan- 1993”, followed by her birth date.
2 months back, she was in an accident. Her bike had collided with a car, a black Mercedes. She had fallen to the side road so she had just a few scratches. As she dusted her hands and her dress, she noticed the car. It hadn’t sped away, neither was anyone at the driver’s wheel. Curious, she approached the car and pulled open the driver’s seat and looked inside. There was none in the car.
How did this car come here? Where did the driver escape to? Questions started flooding her mind when she noticed a paper in the dashboard. Once she opened the dashboard, she saw the paper had a peculiar key stuck to it. When she flipped the paper, she noticed something written on it.
Down the street,
Across this road,
Awaits a treat,
With it's lawn all mowed,
A building stands,
Not many know it exists.
You will see a door,
Do a little chore.
Go until there
This key do not spare
You will be amused
Don't be confused.
And that’s how Dorothy Francis had reached this place.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, I used to go to work atop a skyscraper. It was a multistorey building and I was to work on the topmost floor. The next floor being terrace.
At a minimum, it took me everyday around 15 minutes to reach the topmost floor – a 5 minute wait for the lift and a 10 minute ascend.
On the topmost floor, there’s this huge windowless space separated into equally or almost equally spaced cubicles. On the first day, as I entered the space, I could feel my hands and legs go numb. It was freezing cold that all I wanted to do was shrink into myself like a ball to reduce my surface area. But since I couldn’t do that, I tried to unfreeze my numb fingers by keeping them under my tooshie, well not everytime maybe once in 15 minutes every 15 minutes.
Another solution I found was to wear a jacket but fingers still remained cold, so had to revert to earlier mentioned method. Solution 3 was run to the coffee dispenser, pour myself a cup of Latte and keeping holding it for as long as the Latte is warm, that’s maximum 5 minutes.
Solution 4 was rushing to the restrooms and staying there for no reason, maybe run the water or call someone or just walk inside. Somehow, restrooms never felt that cold. I could often see other ladies also coming into the restrooms more often, maybe they also suffered due to the cold.
I remember as altitude increases, temperature decreases a bit but never expected to this level. I wasn’t that high above sea level.
As time went by, I started falling sick, cold with runny nose. The runny nose never ending. Now I had a genuine reason to rush to the restroom, to blow my nose.
As time went by, my cold seemed like a chronic ailment to me, so I thought to approach a doctor for diagnostics. After meeting him and telling him about my issues he gave me 2 solutions, not sure if they are mutually exclusive. 1. Avoid AC by all costs 2. Avoid Skyscrapers.
Both of them indirectly meant I should not be working at this workplace. So should I be quitting? For cold?
“I want to work from home/ hometown because I am not feeling well.” “Okay, then take leave.” “No, I don’t have leaves, I will do some documentation work.” Silence.
“I am in my hometown but I am scared to travel to work because of Covid scenario.” “Okay, let’s monitor the situation, until then what can you do?” “I will do some documentation work.” Silence.
“I am diagnosed with Covid.” “Please take leave and rest at home.” “No, I am feeling all healthy, I don’t want to take leaves as I will be bored.” “Okay, so?” “I will take up some documentation work.” Silence.
“I don’t like travelling to work, I might fall sick, my doctor advised not to travel.” “So what now?” “I will do documentation work.” Silence.
“I have an upcoming function so I am going out of this city.” “So leave?” “No work from hometown. I will take up documentation work.” Silence.
I wake up every dawn breaking my head thinking how to create sufficient “documentation work.”
I don’t workout, I don’t move from my desk for atleast 10 hours during workdays, I slouch in my couch for hours binge watching TV series and random videos until midnight, I order in food on most days including fried and oily stuff, I drink carbonated drinks; but then when the weighing scale indicates my weight gain, I get upset. Why?
I wake up with a mild headache and a blocked nose. Next thing I do is google ‘headache blocked nose covid symptoms’. I have forgotten what it means to have a normal cold these days.
Why? Occasion: When everyone around you including yourself suddenly gets married and then there is this imminent need to just get out to a far away location to get to know each other.
Where? Destination: Depends totally on you, based on how much money you have got to shell, how many days your job can wait or stay put in your absence, likes and dislikes of your partner, other environmental conditions like virus, bacteria etc spreads.
When? Time: As soon as possible after the occasion, if possible that evening itself, but if the occasion is spreading to multiple days and you need some break or rest, that’s totally understandable.
How? Transportation: If you got a new car, then in it obviously, just drive off. If you are more into adventures, a bike would also do. But then, if you have to make it across the seas or oceans, opt for a flight or how about a cruise ship?
Planning a getaway is so much fun, even better than what the destination can offer.
As she stepped out from the driver’s seat of the car, with a smile warm enough to melt even a rock, two drops of tear rolled down the right side of her cheek, signifying her victory.
A car drive from dawn to night with my shotgun between 2 cities through 3 states covering around 500 kms with the weather flittering between sunny to cloudy to rainy and treating myself to delicious ghee roast and an amazing non veg platter enroute. My way of ringing in the new year!
Offbeat Scribbles 