Alex in Solace Lane

Alarm goes off. Its 7 in the morning Alex wakes up and rushes to the bathroom. After having finished the usual morning rituals he flips through the pages of today's newspaper while hurriedly chewing a sandwich and sipping that nescafe in his hand (how he manages all these things together with two hands is quite interesting in its own way). He takes a quick look in the mirror sets his hair and rushes to his workplace (he works in a kpo).

11 hrs of back breaking work of sitting in front of the computer screen, forgetting to blink for hours and only having the odd coffee in the name of straightening that bent back. The only words he hears are- client presentation, database, google, deliverable and yes the most dreaded of them all deadline (someone very wisely defined it as a long line at the end of which u r dead). Alex had now understood in its entirety what the phrase 'mechanical existence' meant.

After a long day he returns to his room and like a nomad has to now go looking for dinner. So he splashes some water on his face, changes to an old pair of jeans and a thin t-shirt and out he goes to find some food. Through with dinner and feeling somewhat reluctant to go back to his dingy room Alex then decides to take a stroll down the long and winding road called the Solace Lane. It’s a huge stretch of road with a plethora of shops and eateries on both sides and at this hour it’s always buzzing with frenetic activity with people of all ages and all kinds coming here to shop, walk, eat or simply hangout. With a gentle breeze against his face Alex walks observing people while reflecting on the various events in the day. As he recalls these events he is slightly saddened by the thought that today was no different than yesterday and tomorrow is going to be no different either. But he feels relieved right now almost happy with his hair fluttering in the air in this starry moonlit night and life in all forms all around him.

While walking on the Solace Lane he saw an old man joyously giving in to the tantrums of his grandson. He walked further and saw a bunch of college guys shouting swear words at each other and having a hearty laugh, a smile broke out on Alex’s face as he remembered his own life a couple of months back. He walked further still and saw a man wearing a trouser, shirt and a necktie the smile on Alex’s face got broader when he saw this man, as he could see the transition that his life had undergone over the past 2 months in a matter of 2 steps.

For sometime now he had forgotten all the frenzy of his own life and was enjoying observing life from the outside feeling a sense of revelry in this new found objectivity towards his life. At this point he remembered a science class from his school days where his teacher was explaining to the students

" the universe is the vast expansive space that engulfs
everything that exists;
in this universe there are millions of
galaxies;

each galaxy has millions of stars;

sun is a star of one such galaxy called the milky way;

earth is one of the sun’s nine planets;

you are one of the 6 billion (6000000000) people who inhabit
this planet. "

‘one of the 6 billion people’ Alex repeated to himself and felt amused at the importance he associated with an insignificant deadline, felt amused at how he let
this and thousands of other such trivialities affect him each day. The thought was humbling and he felt much lighter. He was glad that he came out for a walk tonight.

He bought an ice-cream and started walking back towards his room enjoying every bit of that ice-cream before it could melt. He slept in bliss that night.

Next day.
Alarm goes off. Its 7 in the morning Alex wakes up and rushes to the bathroom...