Stories

Life in a Metro

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Life in a Metro

Shashank Purandare

This is an attempt to write a multi-lingual story, since life in all the metros is becoming truly cosmopolitan.

Veena pulled the apartment door to close it and ran for the lift in the lobby. But it was already moving down. She pushed the down button on the console and waited impatiently for the other lift to arrive from 20th floor. To Veena, it seemed like moving at an agonisingly slow pace. Finally, the elevator bell dinged and the door opened. The carriage was almost full. She somehow managed to get into it. Veena was the first out of the lift at the ground floor. She almost ran through the lobby. It took her more than a minute to reach the main street outside the Elora complex. As was usual around this time, no autorickshaws were around. She waited at the curb. She finally saw an auto coming around. It was empty. She flagged it down. It slowed down.

“कॅडबरी चलोगे?”

With a shake of the head, the driver accelerated without stopping. Another minute passed before the appearance of another auto. Thankfully, this guy agreed to take her to Cadbury junction. Veena settled back and looked at the watch. She was already running late. The auto driver was aged and was driving at a sedate speed.

“काका, जरा लवकर चला ना. आधीच उशीर झालाय.”
“ताई, सीएनजी गाडी आहे. पिकपच घेत नाही. मी तरी काय करू?”

The auto stopped for signal at the Cadbury junction. Veena paid the fare and got out. She again had to wait for the pedestrian signal to turn green before crossing. She ran as soon as the signal turned green. Just as she was reaching the other end of the road, she saw her BKC bus reach the bus stop about 50 meters ahead. At the same time, she felt the heel of her चप्पल snap. Somehow, she managed to keep her balance. Fortunately, there was cobbler siting by the roadside.

By the time the चप्पल was repaired, the bus was long gone. Already, another small queue had formed for the next bus. She joined the queue. Another bus arrived after ten minutes. It was almost full. She managed to get in and found a seat. The seat was facing the rear end of the bus. She hated this seat but had no choice. And on top of all this, she found Ambarish seating in front, facing her. Even though she did not particularly like Ambarish, she managed a civil enough smile.

“Good morning.” Ambarish said. Veena replied with a nod. She was already feeling tired and the day had barely begun. She had got up around 5 am as usual. Her in-laws were already up, waiting for their morning cuppa. She made tea and started preparing breakfast. Once the पोहे was ready, she made sandwiches for Sana and Advait, her nine and seven year old kids respectively. Arun was on office tour this week. She filled the kid’s tiffins and woke them up. By 7.30, breakfast was served on the table. After breakfast, आबा took the kids down and loaded them on their respective school buses. Veena made chapatis and prepared other lunch items for her in-laws and for her own tiffin. She hated outside food. She took quick shower and got ready. She was already late by this time. No wonder she was feeling sleepy in the bus.

She woke up with a start to find Ambarish shaking her.

“Come on Veena, wakeup.”

“Oh, thanks.” Veena said. She collected her belongings and got down. Both ran up the stairs of their building. Veena was working as a Deputy commercial manager in a multi-national bank for the last two years. It was a very demanding job. It involved dealings in billions of dollars. Her clientele was spread around the globe, spanning many time zones. It was very difficult to manage time during office hours. You missed important deadlines if you were few minutes late in the morning. Today was such a case. On top of everything, there was a message from Mugdha saying she was not coming in today. Her kid was sick. This had just doubled her work load for the day.

Veena setup her laptop, switched it on and then went to Shekhar’s cabin. Shekhar was her immediate boss. She knocked once and went in. Shekhar silently first looked at her and then at the wall clock. But he pointedly said nothing. He of course, understood Veena’s problems and was very sympathetic. But still, work came first. He was answerable to his boss, after all. And so, the day had begun. It promised to be very long day, as always.

The office took a breather at one pm. They could afford half an hour lunch break since their work was back-end. Saurabh, Veena’s colleague, joined her for lunch at her desk. Normally Mugdha also joined them, but she was on leave today.

“सौरभ, आज काय डब्यात?” वीणाने विचारले.
“आज राधिकाने भरली वांगी दिली आहेत. तुझे काय?” सौरभ.
“आज वीणाने भेंडीची भाजी दिली आहे.” वीणा म्हणाली. दोघेही अगदी मनापासून हसले.
“राधिका घरी असते म्हणून नशीब आहे माझे.” सौरभ उद्गारला.

After lunch, both went down to have a coffee at Tambi’s stall.
“तंबी, दो फिल्टर कॉफी देना, कडक.” सौरभने ऑर्डर दिली.

Ambarish joined them. Veena knew that he was angling for her and she disliked it immensely. But since it was sort of covert, she had to grin and bear it. Saurabh understood what was going on and tried his best to deflect Ambarish. Veena also knew how to handle such people. Five feet four in her flats, with a small oval face and hair cascading down her shoulders, Veena, if not beautiful in a traditional sense, was very attractive. She herself realised it. It was natural if many like Ambarish were attracted towards her. But, that is what it was, life in a metro city.

Lunch break over, it was back to the grind. Veena was thoroughly exhausted by 7 pm. It was time to push off. She came out of the office building, Ambarish in toe, Fortunately, Neeta, her friend from another office was already in queue. Veena had a sigh of relief. She and Neeta shared the seat on the bus and Veena was able to get rid of Ambarish.

“Veena, we are planning a picnic to Karjat next Saturday. Saumyaa is booking a farm house there. Want to join?” Neeta said.
“Next Saturday? Why not! Arun will be back. He can manage the house for a day, I suppose. Sure, I will come. Badly need a break from the routine.”

Veena was excited by the prospect. Both started chatting animatedly, planning the picnic. They did not realise when they reached the Cadbury junction. Immediately after getting down, Veena managed to catch an auto. She relaxed on the seat, enjoying the cool breeze. The harsh city lights around were trying to lift the gloom of the dark night. Finally, the day was coming to an end.