Bad_Day.avi

The title for this post has been taken from a video that I saw on a CD, some 9 years back. The video shows a fat guy working on a desktop in a cubicle, the shot is taken from behind the desktop, so that the guy's face is visible and the screen isn't. After a few keystrokes he glazes at the screen for sometime, and then bangs at the enter key with his fingers. Frustration buiding up. After a few more seconds, he slams on the keyboard with his fist about 4-5 times, then gets up, picks up the keyboard and smashes the monitor with it and the monitor topples over the desk!

Well, I'm on a similar frustration level today, and I wish I could take it out this way. Murphy rocks! Such a simple concept, and is applicable everywhere!

Things have just been going wrong because they can. It all started with the IIMA interview where they don't ask anything I am strong at, and pick up chemical engineering to test my "expertise"! Things got worse when they came to NAFTA, which I heard naphtha, and I say "Its a chemical compound". I wasn't wrong, coz that is what I heard, but I know the trouble I got into after that! OK that apart, I think of leaving the same day as my friends are busy and there's no point staying back in Delhi. I get a ticket done for the same day and get my next day's ticket cancelled. And within two hours of it, I get a call: "Mayank, I'm free from work now". I said: "I've already booked for today evening". And then there was a silence which seemed to say: "You only asked me to keep myself free... and now that I did all I can to get free, you can't go back like that!". And I had to do all I can to get the ticket postponed to next day morning so that I could spend the evening with her (read: some scolding from parents, some frowns from the agent, etc etc). OK, so after the evening, I come back to where I stayed, only to realise that I have lost the keys of my bag! My stuff is lying outside in the room, my lappy is inside, and it wasn't a lock which could be cut open. Somehow, me and my uncle managed to force open the zip, and simultaneously, I realised that the keys must have fallen in the cab. Fortunately I had the driver's number, and thanks to the tip I had given earlier(money works!), he was sweet enough to drive back 10 kms to deliver me the key!

And as soon as I think of sleeping, after a big happening day (giving interviews, cancelling tickets in succession and breaking open my own bag), and I happen to have a glass of water, it gets stuck somewhere, and I start coughing. It persists enough to screw up 2 sleeping hours!

Anyway, I somehow manage to pull myself out of the bed, and reach the station, I thought that was the end of it, and plan to sleep in the train. And after 90 minutes, the train stops at a small station called Kosi Kalan. Few minutes down the line, the power is switched off. And makes sure that it becomes so hot in AC3 that you can't sleep.

Now with power switched off, and mobile discharged due to innumerable calls that came from home, I have nothing to do! I didn't get any books this time while travelling, probably coz of the interview being on the head. I didnt find a newspaper in the morning on my way to pick up. Nor did I have any movies loaded on the comp that I could watch. I walked in and out of the train, but no avail, the station doesn't have anything conspicuous!

And it is not 1 or 2 hours, to this moment, it is complete 5 hours and 30 minutes that the train has moved even and inch from here!!!! Thankfully they got power 10 mins back that I can charge my cell and type down the affair. And the moment I open the lappy, I realise that the touchpad has stopped working! And those of you who have experienced, know how tough it is to deal without a touchpad!

And I look back at the moment where I decided to shift to this morning train! :-) And I can see Murphy laughing up there, saying "Boy, don't forget me when you take your calls!"