Sometimes i wonder what i did the whole day and why i spend the day like that?
I could draw some pattern. Apparently the environment seems to influence the pattern at large. While working as a software engineer for the same company at 3 different places, i observed that i followed different routines , living an altogether different life.
A Week-day in Kerala:
It’s Good Morning at 7 am. You enjoy your morning tea with the day’s news paper. Slowly you get your self ready for your work. You find your break fast ready at the dining table- one of the many advantages of living with your mother. Wait for your mother to get ready after her house-hold chores. It’s almost 10 am. Both of you are in a hurry.
Mother has to reach office at 10 am. Your office time, though flexible, starts at 9.15 am. You start the car in a hurry. The 10 o’clock news is on in the radio.. As any other day when you are late, you find a bit of traffic. You drive as fast and smart as you could.
You drop your mother at a quarter past ten only to find her rushing towards her office in a hurry bearing the guilt of not being on time. Ten kilometers in 15 minutes- not bad! You swear to yourself that next day you will get up early and help mother with her house-hold chores so that she could be ready early and both of you could drive peacefully and reach office on time. At half past ten you reach office only to find your colleagues gone for tea after their morning session. Unlike your mother you don’t let guilt creep into your mind. Ah, the difference between government and corporate jobs – you observe!
You work till 2pm. Go for lunch. Work again till 6 pm. Pick up your mother and reach home around 7 pm with a bit of grocery shopping en-route. You take a shower and come back to the living room. With a cup of coffee, you sit in front of your television for next 2-3 hours. You call some of your friends. By the time mother prepares dinner, you surf the web and get back in front of the TV again. Its bed time at 11 pm. You think of the day that’s gone and realize that the major block to your life is you- your laziness. You go to sleep reading one of your favorite novels.
A Weekend in Kerala:
It’s Good Morning at 11 am. You get up, have breakfast and sits in front of tv.
In the evening you have your lunch and go out for some shopping or to meet your friends. By night you are back. You have your dinner and sleep.
It’s Good Morning at 9 am. You have to attend the marriage of some of your family’s acquaintances /relatives. You get yourself ready trying to understand who is getting married and why you have to be there. You find yourself for your Sunday Brunch at a crowded wedding hall. You come back by 2pm. Take a 2 hr nap to recover from the drowsiness caused by the feast. You get up at walk towards your TV to find your family already there. All of you sit together to watch the Sunday evening movie. After the movie, you suddenly realize its Monday next day. You rush to do your laundry and clean your room. A long bath. And its dinner time. Its bed time at 11 pm. You go to sleep reading one of your favorite novels. The scary thoughts of Monday drive away any sleep you’re left with and you stay awake in your bed for long wondering how difficult it would be to wake up next morning. Somewhere in between you drift to sleep.
A Week-day in Delhi:
You get up at 6.30 am. Make tea. Take a quick sip of the tea. Get yourself ready by 7.20 am. You find your self trying to eat some cereals with milk. But looking at the watch you were not able to swallow the food. You keep it in the fridge, close your room and leave in a hurry trying to recollect where your car is parked. After 5 minutes you spot your car only to find it covered fully in dust. You try to swipe it with a towel wondering why you’re paying the cleaning boy. After struggling with the dust, you get into the car and start it to find that it’s almost 8 am. You have exceeded the safe-time-limit by 30 minutes.
The Delhi- Gurgaon road will be a mess by now. Cursing the traffic you start the car. You switch on the FM and keep looking at the new model cars that décor the highway. You find yourself waiting for a Green signal at some points twice. It was red for 2 minutes. Then it turned green. By the time you reach the signal it turned yellow and red.By the signal you’ll hear a knock at your window. A knock for sympathy and food. You try to keep your gaze elsewhere from the tired and hungry faces of children and pregnant women as an unknown guilt starts to creep in. You open your bag and find some bread and bananas. You open the window and give it to the pregnant woman and the hungry child. At that very moment you feel pangs of hunger. You look at the woman and the child through the window again. They’ve already started eating the food. The child turns around and give a wave with his hand. Your hunger transforms itself into satisfaction- of being useful to somebody. Another 3 minutes it took for the signal to turn green again. At the next signal also children of the street knock your car window. You try to ignore them swearing to carry more food next day. Almost 2 hours of traffic, at around 10 am you reach office.
2 hours for 25 kilometers? You think you have better things to do than waste 2 hours just to reach office on time.You start your work. Have tea at 11.30 am. Work again. Lunch at 1.30 pm. Tea at 3.30 pm. Tea again at 5.30 pm. You hear that its raining. You try to finish your work and leave the office before it gets dark. Last minute work pulls you back till 8 pm. It’s still raining.
A rain-lover, you hurry towards your car and start the onward journey to home only to find your-self stuck in traffic. Not until now you’d have appreciated the use of lower gears as much as you do now. Its 9 pm. You find your self only 5 kilometers away from your office. The FM tries to comfort you saying its not only you who want to go home whose stuck in this rain-traffic. But having company for this at late night after a hard day’s work doesn’t seem to comfort y you. To your right and left you find people pushing their royal cars and SUVs that have run out of fuel. With a shudder you check at the fuel indicator. Fortunately you have enough petrol to reach Delhi. At 11 pm, you’re still some ten kilometers away from your home. You find your fuel indicator blinking showing low fuel. You cal l out the names of all the Gods you’ve heard of so far. You know there’s a petrol pump 5 kilometers ahead. You switch off the ac and music. Your wind shields starts to get misty. You open your windows to let in some air and along with it came a few rain drops. By the time you reach the petrol pump its already 12 midnight and the pump is closed. Traffic clears as you approach home and at half past mid-night you find yourself at home unable to move your legs and back. You just fall on bed and close your eyes.
No sooner you closed your eyes than your alarm went on. Its 2 am. Time to switch on motor. Without opening your eyes you walk towards the switch only to find the hissing sound of the tap. You switch off the motor and walk towards bed cursing the MCD. Alarm beeps again at 4 am as if it was waiting to ensure that you’re fully asleep to wake you again. By default you walk towards the switch praying water shall come this time. Your prayers will be answered this time. You switch on the motor and go back to bed. Since you have to switch off the motor in 30 minutes, you find your sleep disturbed. For a second you even think of buying a new motor if this gets damaged- a price for undisturbed sleep! You don’t remember anything once you drift to a deep sleep. Another shudder- you open your eyes and check the time. Its 6.30 am. The thought of motor still running make you jump out of bed. You reach there only to find the switch off. You start making tea wondering if it was you or has any of the Gods bestowed you with the grace of switching off your motor Himself.
A Weekend in Delhi:
Alarm goes off at 4 am. You wake up and walk towards motor’s switch.
Alarm goes off at 11 am. You open your eyes to realize you’ve still got a life. A quick brunch. You do your laundry. Clean the mess where you’ve been living in for last one week. Make some tea. Prepare your self for long bath. You open the tap only to find you’ve got only one bucket left. So you cut short your bath. Get ready and go out for a walk. You buy some food and get back to your room. You switch on the TV and start eating. At that moment you feel relaxed and at home. After your dinner you continue watching TV and drifts off to sleep.
Alarm goes off at 2 am. You wake up and walk towards motor’s switch.
Half an hour later you find your self sleeping again peacefully.
Its Good Morning at 12 noon. You check for movies and events. You find your self confused with the wide variety of choices that you feel like spending the day doing nothing. You call your family, friends .You just take a book, switch on the TV and computer and just idle away the rest of the day. By the end of the day you find enough energy to carry your self for another week. You cook some new dish. Have dinner in front of TV. Its bed time at 11 pm. You think of the day that’s gone and realize that the major block to your life is not you – it’s the traffic, the water, the dust. reading some book.
A Week-day in Frankfurt:
Its Good Morning at 7.30 am. You get ready by 8.15 am. Prepare and eat your breakfast watching news on CNN. You start from your apartment at 9 am. You walk to the nearest Metro station 5 minutes down the lane. You listen to the music from your i-pod. You get into Metro and start reading your book. After 15 minutes you reach your destination. You get out of the train station and walks towards your office 10 minutes from the station. You reach office at 9.30 am.
You start your day with a black coffee and some cookies. Another coffee at 11 am. You go out for lunch at a quarter past 1. Each day you try different restaurants. You resume your work at 2 pm. At 3.30 pm you drink some hot chocolate. At 4.30 pm you’ll have another coffee at your desk. At 5 pm you leave the office. You take the Metro and go to the fitness centre located at the centre of shopping street. You work out for a while. Take a sauna bath and come out refreshed. Its 7.15 pm. You just do some window shopping and take the next metro to your apartment. On your way back you buy some groceries, rent some DVDs and reach your room by 8.30 pm. You make dinner and watch movies and sit with your laptop for some time. Its bed time at 11 pm. You think of the day that’s gone and realize that you still have more free time per day which could be put to use by some sort of studies or so. You go to sleep reading some book.
A weekend in Frankfurt:
Saturday morning you get up at 5 am and get ready by 6 am. You start out on your own for some sight seeing trip. You board the train .You go places, take pictures, meet people, try different food. You get back to your apartment by 9pm. You eat something and transfer the pictures to your laptop, send it to family and friends and go to sleep tired.
It’s Good Morning at 10 am. You eat something light. Go to fitness centre and get back home for lunch. You start preparing your lunch at 2 pm . By 4 pm you eat your lunch and take a nap. You get up at 6 pm do your laundry, clean the place and take a long bath. At 8 pm you just go out for a walk- for an hour. At 9 pm you are back and preparing dinner. You eat watching some movie. Its bed time at 11 pm. You go to sleep watching some movie on your laptop.
So the environment does make a man!
I could draw some pattern. Apparently the environment seems to influence the pattern at large. While working as a software engineer for the same company at 3 different places, i observed that i followed different routines , living an altogether different life.
A Week-day in Kerala:
It’s Good Morning at 7 am. You enjoy your morning tea with the day’s news paper. Slowly you get your self ready for your work. You find your break fast ready at the dining table- one of the many advantages of living with your mother. Wait for your mother to get ready after her house-hold chores. It’s almost 10 am. Both of you are in a hurry.
Mother has to reach office at 10 am. Your office time, though flexible, starts at 9.15 am. You start the car in a hurry. The 10 o’clock news is on in the radio.. As any other day when you are late, you find a bit of traffic. You drive as fast and smart as you could.
You drop your mother at a quarter past ten only to find her rushing towards her office in a hurry bearing the guilt of not being on time. Ten kilometers in 15 minutes- not bad! You swear to yourself that next day you will get up early and help mother with her house-hold chores so that she could be ready early and both of you could drive peacefully and reach office on time. At half past ten you reach office only to find your colleagues gone for tea after their morning session. Unlike your mother you don’t let guilt creep into your mind. Ah, the difference between government and corporate jobs – you observe!
You work till 2pm. Go for lunch. Work again till 6 pm. Pick up your mother and reach home around 7 pm with a bit of grocery shopping en-route. You take a shower and come back to the living room. With a cup of coffee, you sit in front of your television for next 2-3 hours. You call some of your friends. By the time mother prepares dinner, you surf the web and get back in front of the TV again. Its bed time at 11 pm. You think of the day that’s gone and realize that the major block to your life is you- your laziness. You go to sleep reading one of your favorite novels.
A Weekend in Kerala:
It’s Good Morning at 11 am. You get up, have breakfast and sits in front of tv.
In the evening you have your lunch and go out for some shopping or to meet your friends. By night you are back. You have your dinner and sleep.
It’s Good Morning at 9 am. You have to attend the marriage of some of your family’s acquaintances /relatives. You get yourself ready trying to understand who is getting married and why you have to be there. You find yourself for your Sunday Brunch at a crowded wedding hall. You come back by 2pm. Take a 2 hr nap to recover from the drowsiness caused by the feast. You get up at walk towards your TV to find your family already there. All of you sit together to watch the Sunday evening movie. After the movie, you suddenly realize its Monday next day. You rush to do your laundry and clean your room. A long bath. And its dinner time. Its bed time at 11 pm. You go to sleep reading one of your favorite novels. The scary thoughts of Monday drive away any sleep you’re left with and you stay awake in your bed for long wondering how difficult it would be to wake up next morning. Somewhere in between you drift to sleep.
A Week-day in Delhi:
You get up at 6.30 am. Make tea. Take a quick sip of the tea. Get yourself ready by 7.20 am. You find your self trying to eat some cereals with milk. But looking at the watch you were not able to swallow the food. You keep it in the fridge, close your room and leave in a hurry trying to recollect where your car is parked. After 5 minutes you spot your car only to find it covered fully in dust. You try to swipe it with a towel wondering why you’re paying the cleaning boy. After struggling with the dust, you get into the car and start it to find that it’s almost 8 am. You have exceeded the safe-time-limit by 30 minutes.
The Delhi- Gurgaon road will be a mess by now. Cursing the traffic you start the car. You switch on the FM and keep looking at the new model cars that décor the highway. You find yourself waiting for a Green signal at some points twice. It was red for 2 minutes. Then it turned green. By the time you reach the signal it turned yellow and red.By the signal you’ll hear a knock at your window. A knock for sympathy and food. You try to keep your gaze elsewhere from the tired and hungry faces of children and pregnant women as an unknown guilt starts to creep in. You open your bag and find some bread and bananas. You open the window and give it to the pregnant woman and the hungry child. At that very moment you feel pangs of hunger. You look at the woman and the child through the window again. They’ve already started eating the food. The child turns around and give a wave with his hand. Your hunger transforms itself into satisfaction- of being useful to somebody. Another 3 minutes it took for the signal to turn green again. At the next signal also children of the street knock your car window. You try to ignore them swearing to carry more food next day. Almost 2 hours of traffic, at around 10 am you reach office.
2 hours for 25 kilometers? You think you have better things to do than waste 2 hours just to reach office on time.You start your work. Have tea at 11.30 am. Work again. Lunch at 1.30 pm. Tea at 3.30 pm. Tea again at 5.30 pm. You hear that its raining. You try to finish your work and leave the office before it gets dark. Last minute work pulls you back till 8 pm. It’s still raining.
A rain-lover, you hurry towards your car and start the onward journey to home only to find your-self stuck in traffic. Not until now you’d have appreciated the use of lower gears as much as you do now. Its 9 pm. You find your self only 5 kilometers away from your office. The FM tries to comfort you saying its not only you who want to go home whose stuck in this rain-traffic. But having company for this at late night after a hard day’s work doesn’t seem to comfort y you. To your right and left you find people pushing their royal cars and SUVs that have run out of fuel. With a shudder you check at the fuel indicator. Fortunately you have enough petrol to reach Delhi. At 11 pm, you’re still some ten kilometers away from your home. You find your fuel indicator blinking showing low fuel. You cal l out the names of all the Gods you’ve heard of so far. You know there’s a petrol pump 5 kilometers ahead. You switch off the ac and music. Your wind shields starts to get misty. You open your windows to let in some air and along with it came a few rain drops. By the time you reach the petrol pump its already 12 midnight and the pump is closed. Traffic clears as you approach home and at half past mid-night you find yourself at home unable to move your legs and back. You just fall on bed and close your eyes.
No sooner you closed your eyes than your alarm went on. Its 2 am. Time to switch on motor. Without opening your eyes you walk towards the switch only to find the hissing sound of the tap. You switch off the motor and walk towards bed cursing the MCD. Alarm beeps again at 4 am as if it was waiting to ensure that you’re fully asleep to wake you again. By default you walk towards the switch praying water shall come this time. Your prayers will be answered this time. You switch on the motor and go back to bed. Since you have to switch off the motor in 30 minutes, you find your sleep disturbed. For a second you even think of buying a new motor if this gets damaged- a price for undisturbed sleep! You don’t remember anything once you drift to a deep sleep. Another shudder- you open your eyes and check the time. Its 6.30 am. The thought of motor still running make you jump out of bed. You reach there only to find the switch off. You start making tea wondering if it was you or has any of the Gods bestowed you with the grace of switching off your motor Himself.
A Weekend in Delhi:
Alarm goes off at 4 am. You wake up and walk towards motor’s switch.
Alarm goes off at 11 am. You open your eyes to realize you’ve still got a life. A quick brunch. You do your laundry. Clean the mess where you’ve been living in for last one week. Make some tea. Prepare your self for long bath. You open the tap only to find you’ve got only one bucket left. So you cut short your bath. Get ready and go out for a walk. You buy some food and get back to your room. You switch on the TV and start eating. At that moment you feel relaxed and at home. After your dinner you continue watching TV and drifts off to sleep.
Alarm goes off at 2 am. You wake up and walk towards motor’s switch.
Half an hour later you find your self sleeping again peacefully.
Its Good Morning at 12 noon. You check for movies and events. You find your self confused with the wide variety of choices that you feel like spending the day doing nothing. You call your family, friends .You just take a book, switch on the TV and computer and just idle away the rest of the day. By the end of the day you find enough energy to carry your self for another week. You cook some new dish. Have dinner in front of TV. Its bed time at 11 pm. You think of the day that’s gone and realize that the major block to your life is not you – it’s the traffic, the water, the dust. reading some book.
A Week-day in Frankfurt:
Its Good Morning at 7.30 am. You get ready by 8.15 am. Prepare and eat your breakfast watching news on CNN. You start from your apartment at 9 am. You walk to the nearest Metro station 5 minutes down the lane. You listen to the music from your i-pod. You get into Metro and start reading your book. After 15 minutes you reach your destination. You get out of the train station and walks towards your office 10 minutes from the station. You reach office at 9.30 am.
You start your day with a black coffee and some cookies. Another coffee at 11 am. You go out for lunch at a quarter past 1. Each day you try different restaurants. You resume your work at 2 pm. At 3.30 pm you drink some hot chocolate. At 4.30 pm you’ll have another coffee at your desk. At 5 pm you leave the office. You take the Metro and go to the fitness centre located at the centre of shopping street. You work out for a while. Take a sauna bath and come out refreshed. Its 7.15 pm. You just do some window shopping and take the next metro to your apartment. On your way back you buy some groceries, rent some DVDs and reach your room by 8.30 pm. You make dinner and watch movies and sit with your laptop for some time. Its bed time at 11 pm. You think of the day that’s gone and realize that you still have more free time per day which could be put to use by some sort of studies or so. You go to sleep reading some book.
A weekend in Frankfurt:
Saturday morning you get up at 5 am and get ready by 6 am. You start out on your own for some sight seeing trip. You board the train .You go places, take pictures, meet people, try different food. You get back to your apartment by 9pm. You eat something and transfer the pictures to your laptop, send it to family and friends and go to sleep tired.
It’s Good Morning at 10 am. You eat something light. Go to fitness centre and get back home for lunch. You start preparing your lunch at 2 pm . By 4 pm you eat your lunch and take a nap. You get up at 6 pm do your laundry, clean the place and take a long bath. At 8 pm you just go out for a walk- for an hour. At 9 pm you are back and preparing dinner. You eat watching some movie. Its bed time at 11 pm. You go to sleep watching some movie on your laptop.
So the environment does make a man!
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