Time Waits for No Man!

Slowly I opened my heavy eyelids and saw the bright light rays getting in through the half opened window curtain. Moving aside the curtain with one hand, struggling to open my sleepy palpebras, I gazed outside through the slits of the windows ajar and found that the freshness of morning had already gone.

Without moving, however, exerting much effort, I glanced all over the darkened room where I was lying. The brooding dark and the closed room together appeared like that the place is located somewhere in the strangest places of the world. I attempted to wipe off the fog that covers my memories in the process of recollecting the incidents that took place last night.

I remembered the days I got up in the early morning to attend the gymnasium like a smart guy and returned after heavy workouts to reach the office punctually. Since the office time is 8.30 in the morning, I had to wake up a little bit earlier than usual in order to adjust time for my morning exercises and all. That short ‘nostalgia-generated-fever’, which caught me last week had collapsed all my routine practices, I thought.

And now there was this creative guy, a colleague at my new work place, who used to take innovative initiatives to make the life of people around him better. Influenced by the environment conservation school of thought, this creative guy had prompted me to accept the lift of his vehicle daily to office and back as we both stayed in the same direction. So, I had to leave my ‘sincere bike’ most of the days at my settling place to go with him so that we could together cut the emission of hazardous gases by a minuscule percent. 

So, everyday, he used to come to pick me from my place and in any of such days, due to any reason, if he couldn’t come up at the proper time; he used to sent me an SMS, like ‘DON’T WAIT FOR ME...’ or something like that, so that I could have made use of the service of my bike. 

I turned aside and glanced at the time-piece to shockingly see that the time was 8.15 AM. My colleague used to appear between 7.45 and 7.55 in the morning or at least that will be the regular time he used to send me the SMS alert. With awe, I searched for my cell phone, which I found lying close to my head on the bed itself.  

I checked my cell phone and saw three missed calls and one message on its display. I found that the missed calls were put by my colleague. The message must be the kind that he usually sends me in case he couldn’t come at the regular time, I thought. By the time, I realised that, I have been sleeping blindly all the time in my dwelling place in Cochin unaware of the time. ‘Poor creative guy!’ I thought; ‘he might have left for office after finding his three calls unanswered!’

I opened my inbox and read, 

“I’M WAITING OUTSIDE!’. The message was sent at 7.50 PM and then the time was 8.15.

Frantically, I stood up in seconds and ran towards the door to jump outside after unbolting the lock with a banging sound. There I saw the creative guy standing close to the gate thoughtfully. His eyes were fixed at some distant parts of the sky, perhaps he might have been visualising things happening at infinity.

Hearing the sound, he turned his face and saw me in a pathetic appearance.

Scratching my head, I apologised, “Sorry...I have overslept...”.

Seeing my state and the standing posture, my colleague burst into a hearty laughter. Has he been waiting at the exact place for the last twenty minutes? I asked.

“Yes, If you had woken up a little bit later, you would have made me standing there at the exact spot for another twenty minutes more, at least till 8.30”, he said laughing.

As I had not bathed, and even had not brushed my teeth, we both agreed that it would be better if he goes to office at the correct time.

After he left, I began to get ready in express pace.