She got into the car and instinctively pulled her seatbelt across. The driver didn’t need to be told which way to take. A certain hint of pride had appeared across her mother’s face when she realized that her daughter would be taking the chauffer driven company car to her workplace. It barely affected her state of mind today. As she gazed at the clear blue sky, she felt she had surpassed this emotion of vanity. Somewhere the void was filling her life with emptiness. She told her driver to take the wrong turn and asked him not to question anymore. Nonplussed, he turned for further directions, she didn’t know them either!
The car just moved swiftly…bypassing the jams and plying onto less treaded paths. It was 9:30am…
He was waiting for her car to arrive. She found it annoying to take the elevator with him; day after day…she took care to portray her discomfort, but in vain. It was past 10 now and he speed dialed her number. She disconnected the call. She did not want to go to office today and for once, she had decided to do what she wanted to. Casual leaves couldn’t be taken casually and planned leaves required too much contemplation. She barely found the HR policies worth adhering to…she was all set to defy them!
Retrospecting her past few days at work, she knew she had achieved all her targets and exceeded 2 of them. But she also knew that disregarding her boss’ call and bunking a meeting will erase her past glory. Yet, did she care much?! She now released her seatbelt, assuming that in a faraway land the traffic rules will be less stringent. She went ahead taking liberty to believe that they dint exist at all. It had been 3hrs and 28missed calls altogether! The driver was worried about a peak value of kilometers covered that would appear for this day in his daily log book. But he knew she would defend his stance. After all, she had been the kindest person he ever drove for. He could recount the times she packed him biryani to take home for his kids. She even bought Panchatantra tales for his daughter. Time and again she had convinced him of the power of education. He never did mind working overtime to make sure she reached home safely. But today her request was eerie; she had refused to relent even after 3.5hours of aimless driving.
Somewhere in the distance, the sound of lashing waves was deafening her silence. She rose to splash the water on her face and stood with her arms stretched open to welcome the sunshine. She could feel the sand move under her feet and how the world seemed like a bizarre breeze! Swept off her feet by the retreating waves, she struggled ahead to touch the sun. When she thought she was almost there, it hid behind the cloud of rain. She was laughing to herself as she got drenched in the showers. Like a child, she had build castles in the air and it hurt her when they fell apart. She laughed and cried at the same time. Strange was the ambivalence of time! The rain carried the tears off her cheeks and wiped them off to reveal a smile full of life.
She knew all this while, that something was missing…she had not found it yet. But a certain sense of fulfillment had stalled her search. She wondered about her magical yesterday. She pondered over the power of lashing waves in setting the pieces of her mind in place. She knew there lay a greater challenge in living life the monotonous way! This break had prepared her to take the realities of life headstrong. She set out the other day, took the elevator with him and was poised to take on her new set of targets. All she needed was to breakaway once to find the evasive exuberance within her!
