Wake Up, Nik

"Trrinnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg !!!!"
The Sony Ericsson screamed loudly with the morning alarm.

My dreamy eyes fought to adjust to the morning sunshine. I desperately tried to reach it with sleepy eyes. Finally with great efforts I managed to click on the snooze button. Unwantingly, I checked the time in the alarm clock. Oh shucks!!! its 8:00 am..N its Monday morning!!!! Software engineers dread mondays like no other thing in the world...

As I composed myself and thought of it, I realized I had a meeting at 9:00 am!!! With great speed, I completed my morning formalities and got dressed up. I nearly ran towards my bike. Oh my God.. it was 8:30!! I knew I was not going to make it to office on time. With fear in my heart, I kick-started my bike. The bike heeded to my request, but only after a few kicks. As I got onto the main road, I throttled my accelerator taking it from 0 to 60 kmph in just over 30 seconds.

I raced my bike through the busy road. The traffic was bad as usual. Oh no, it was worse that day. The Pune traffic- with the colourful swarm of fancy two wheelers, smoke spewing PMT buses and erratic auto-rickshaws, was not a delightful sight. I honked at every single vehicle on the road which seemed to slow me down. No, I was not going to surrender to their games today.

Just as I was crossing the junction, a couple whizzed past me on a shiny Yamaha. The bike vanished into the crowd adding to my agony. I resented at my bachelorship. If only she had not left me....I thought.
”This is not the time for all these thoughts!”, I reminded myself.

Without thinking much, I accelerated towards my destination. There was only one thing in my mind.. Reach the office!!! On Time!!! Well, for the world, I was living a happy life. My clients sent me hate mails every alternate day and my colleagues were irritated by me. I felt as if I had the worst job! The keen sense of restlessness was growing in me with each passing day. I dint know what it was.

Today was such a day when I had woken up with that same feeling of desperation and helplessness. I wished my life was simpler. As I got involved deeper into my chain of thoughts, I started losing my sense of awareness..I felt as if I was moving towards a big black hole... N before I could realize, the reality hit me! I was speeding towards a big black truck! I slammed hard on my brakes. By a mechanical chain of events, the brake fluid created pressure on the disc brake, the disc locked into place and my wheel stopped dead in its motion. My bike skid and came to rest inches from the truck’s tyre. My eyes closed and the world turned into darkness as I fell down unconscious.

“Wake up, Nik!!” , I heard a familiar voice.
I opened my eyes slowly. And there she was, standing besides my bed- my darling wife- Lucy.
“Have you been dreaming again???” she asked.
Oh my God.. all this was just a dream????? I thought sweating profusely by the impact of the nightmare. Am I alive? Yes I really am.
I looked at my watch. I showed 7:30 am.
Thank God it’s Sunday....I exclaimed almost in excitement.
Why did I have this dream? I pondered over the whole scenario.
Maybe I was cribbing about everything I did not have in life. Had I been missing out on things that really mattered to me? Years of hapless struggle for true happiness had left me weak and fearful of my actions. Did I really wish for this life? There had to be a reason.

And then the realization dawned upon me. All these days, I had been thinking of the bad things happening to me. Things had only gotten worse. I had forgotten the today in hope of tomorrow. I had all the life I ever dreamt of- a great job, a lovely wife, a great home at a posh colony. Yet, I never spent time to enjoy the good things that life had to offer. Yet, I had given up living the moment. How could this fact fade into oblivion?

I had found the secret. It was simple.

Live today as you really wish to live. N your tomorrow will reveal its true beautiful colours.
Have I really woken up???? I guess I am....