Destination, ever so important , scale of success , source of happiness , we all are in pursuit of a destination. One point to another is all that matters. This obsession with destination has engulfed the mere mortals to the heights that we have become numb to something that is happening to us quietly, Life.
6:45 AM the alarm goes off , loud shrill voice that can raise the dead from the graves. Nothing else would do, after all Shawn was considered to be in hall of fame for sleeping in college days. Conscious mind takes over the sub conscious mind and so does a sinking feeling. Everyday Shawn wakes up to just one thought , same battle rages in his conscious mind, same questions hangs before him , staring straight in his eyes and asking , shall we or shall we not go to work ? His hand like a well programmed machine goes on the mobile and puts the alarm on snooze mode even when his eyes are so not ready to open up. 5 more minutes to sleep. Its funny how those 5 minutes can fulfill you knowing that those are your last for the day, last of the 5 hours sleep Shawn takes. Alarm goes off again and this time he jumps off the bed. Its a race against time every morning. 15 minutes to get office ready and reach the waiting cab which waits at a 3 minutes walk. So the destination cab begins and a well laid set of rules follows. Even a slight deviation would mean getting late so the run has to be perfect. Most of the times he makes it but sometimes he has to calls in late. After all every warrior has an Archilies heel. This morning the path has been well followed and he locks the home with exact 3 minutes to go. 3 minutes where he walks while he thinks , how long will I do this, how long will I not follow my dream? and then takes over the corridor of uncertainity , What exactly is my dream ? The cab is right where it always is. Shawn opens the door and gets inside. Destination Cab reached and hence starts the next pursuit of destination.
Destination Office. Its a distance of 45KM and early start ensures that it is covered at most in an hour. Shawn ensures that he carries a small part of sleep in his eyes everyday and use it at the right time. The day starts with exchange of good mornings amongst the fellow travelers. Good old days, when it use to start with 'uth sale 15 ghante se so raha hai, le chai & sutta' and there was always music around. Back in the cab Shawn reads the news paper. This is the one thing not changed since his school days. Newspaper, flip it around and start from the back. Sports news, my kinda news and the cartoon strip, absolute delight. Rest all always has been insignificant. Once done he uses the ounce of sleep he carries in his eyes. Nap for 40 minutes. If sleep is evading you fool yourself and say , we gonna take a nap and if you have ever loved Garfield, you will take a NAP!! Dad said reading always pays and I so agree but then cartoon strip pays off too. Not many know that ...Shhh!!! and so the cab which I would more like to think of as an evil machine which takes you away from the comfort of home to behind enemy lines, reaches another destination, Destination Office.
The war begins and so does another pursuit, EOD . The rules are simple here. everyone is a machine , nobody is indispensable, meet your deadlines, try not to fancy yourself in corporate politics until unless you consider yourself real cunning and you might just survive the day. Emotions and relations are not appreciated quality in this part of the world and everyone looks at others with skepticism and selflessness, to the minutest level is a lost virtue. Another set of rules is to be followed but then Shawn did not decide them.What to do and by when it has to be done is pre decided. All Shawn does is execute them. He is no mug in following the rules and he follows them well but then he always has that lingering question just like one he had in morning, Will I or will I not ever break free ? and just like morning comes the uncertain part , Break free to what ?
Few meetings, certain executions , some directions and sutta breaks brings him to the magical figure of 5. Time to wrap up and leave. He has not let any raised eyebrow effect him from leaving well 10 minutes before most. Another destination has been reached, EOD is here. Its time to begin the pursuit of best part of the day. Back Home. It will not be easy in this over crowded metro. The journey will take double the time it took in the morning and its time to think of Garfield again. What else can you do sitting in a cab for 2 hours , stare at the angry honking traffic. Thats all we have become , humans to traffic. Every one in pursuit of a destination and wants to reach there earliest possible.
Two hours of a vicious journey ends and destination home is reached. The part where Shawn is free to do as he please till the next dawn. Till the alarm goes off again. Where the moto is ' Who says I can't get stoned
Turn off the lights and the telephone ,Me in my house alone ,Who says I can't be free ,From all of the things that I used to be ,Rewrite my history..
Little did he know, in pursuit of destination he has forgotten the real ever so important journey.
These destinations has blinded Shawn to the journey called life. After all the journeys are the one that make the story and never the destination. Somebody never told my dear friend Robert, if woods are lovely, dark and deep, stop and enjoy for some time after all this is what the destination really wants us to see. Cause destinations are always ends of the journey and its the journey that hold the beauty. A journey called Life..
