Awakening
Beep, Beep, Beep. The alarm rang sharp at quarter to seven. Sugata set that early alarm not to be late at work. He moves the drapes to look out of the bed side window. It is raining. He has to be at work by ten O’clock, can’t he duck into the pillow for few more minutes? It took him moments to fall asleep again as soon as he snoozed the alarm.
It buzzed again after 15 minutes. Mostly people snooze the alarm for 5 minutes. Sugata does that for 15. And that’s the reason he is often late at work, at meetings with friends. Time hasn’t been very good friend of him and everyone reproves him for that, his boss, colleagues, friends, girlfriend who not. But old habits die hard. Yesterday he was at the office parking, just got off the rickshaw. He was only 20 minutes late, yet his boss called him. “Everyone makes on time, and you can’t!”, he said with despair.
Sugata wakes up straight away. There’s no way he is going to be late today. But he wakes up to flake out again, leaning to the wall beside the bed. And of course he snoozes the buzzer again. A while passes and he wakes up to check over the time. It is a jingly rain out there.
It is quarter past 7. Sugata wakes up to the damn zizz again! It is indeed a cold rainy morning, he pulls the quilt over his body. Ah! Such a comfort. He is wide awake now, so stops the alarm. And pity, he dozes off too soon to know that his head bangs the pillow again.
He is awake and it’s 35 minutes past 8. Sugata feels as terrible as a shipwreck. Why can’t he be determined to his promise? No, he can’t ever change. He needs to get out within 9 to reach sharp at work. Sugata finishes off brushing and his morning tea while changing. But the rain doesn’t. He waits few minutes to see if it does, but no hope. So he changes mind and gets out to the road.
Sugata got on the bus right at time. But there are traffics stuck everywhere. Too much rain and Dhaka city is waterlogged. The bus is moving forward but slowly. He is sincere today, yet he will be late like any other day. The road is overflowing. Hours of heavyweight rain flooded the city while Sugata was cat-sleeping in his cozy quilt. Damn! He is checking over his wristwatch from time to time. The bus takes a turn and no luck, the flood is all over and deeper. A rickshaw suddenly falls down struggling through the water streams to move aside and the passengers almost crawl out of it swimming to anything that is nearby . A surge takes gallons of water into a roadside little shop as the bus passes by and Sugata watches in surprise. Some of the buses and cars are stuck in the middle, their engines died of water seeping.
It is already quarter to 10. “He intentionally started the rain”, Sugata blamed the god of fortune in despair, “Else why today”? He picks up the phone to call his boss. He is trying to make the excuse stronger, perhaps that can derogate the call down he is going to receive. But instead he gets to know that the boss is also stuck in the jam and he literally appreciates Sugata’s concern to inform early. “Whenever you may reach, mate”, says the boss. Sugata was happily surprised.
At last soaked in knee deep water, through half way on bus and half way in rickshaw there he is at work after a dreadful journey and it is 20 past 10 O’clock. So many haven’t made it yet and Sugata was happier to find out the boss is one of them too. Yes, it took him 20 more minutes to reach.
No scold today.
Original in Bengali : Tuhin Talukder (Link) English Translation: Papia Chowdhury.
