Lost N Found The MP3 Player Story

Lost N Found...

23 February 2010.
7:34 am.

I knew I was late by 4 minutes as per my regular schedule. I knew I would miss the bus to my company. As per my daily habit, I plugged in my 60 day old USB MP3 player in my ears and began running. It was obvious that I would lose the bus but the music in my ears pumped in some optimism in my head. I rushed to the bus stop and found the bus over there. I was happier than our milk man who fooled us daily by giving 100 ml lesser over a liter. I boarded the bus and got the shocker of my life. The late comers have occupied every seat except the one on which driver was seated. There were two guys sitting around the gear box. This wasn’t enough. I saw a girl with brown eyes whom I used to follow day in and out in the company premises. It was for her I used to board the earliest bust scheduled at 7:20am from our locality. Everything in my schedule was as per hers, Lunch at 1:30 instead of 12:30 and catching the earliest evening bus to home. This sometimes made my next morning sour when my boss discovered incomplete SAP codes of the balance material on his desk. I thronged the empty space around her seat and started reading in detail about the Bharti-Zain deal in the newspaper. The track called ‘Summer of 69’ made the atmosphere more vibrant for me. I always hear music on the maximum volume which sometimes raised the eyebrows of my counterpart as the music leaked from the headphones.

This was a habit since last 200 days. Newspaper to the left and music to the right I rushed to the bus that leads me to the place where I get work. I did this handy jugglery because I knew I was no engineer and the place where my office was a hard core engineering village. The news in the paper made my ambition brawnier to write one day for it and the music in the ears led me frame the tune I would play on my guitar and keyboard in the evening. My eyes roved around the ambience. I saw my friends laughing. I saw their lips moving but couldn’t hear them as the music in my ears refrained me to do so. The birds were covering the sky to garner their daily food. The scintillating lights of the old Chinese make music player of the bus were the root cause of the added frustration of engineers around. The world seemed to be a mute motion picture to me. The same sequence of events happened in the evening with an exception – the birds were returning home in a happier mood and so were my friends.

I completed one of the tenacious journeys of my life. I stood all the 45 minutes to my office. However it was a habit in my college days. But the only difference was the eyeballs pinching me all the way. I thanked Samsung to make this miraculous device called USB MP3 player that made my journey smooth. I was oblivious of the events fixed for me in the upcoming hours. I sat for breakfast. They call it Sev – Khaman here and ate it with zeal. I abhorred it. I took 2 dry slices of bread, milk and sat in a corner. The music was still on in my ears. The reason behind it was the saddest Bollywood tracks played by the canteen manager. I love music and couldn’t resist somebody polluting my ears. She sat exactly 60 degree north to me. I know I might have got this wrong because I am bad at deciding directions. For the first time, I unplugged the device, paused the music and kept it on table. I was completely lost in her. The scene was magical when the wintery rays of sun landed on her hair resulting in a luminous figure. I was completely lost in the vista. Suddenly my friend patted on my back and said it was 3 minutes to go. There is a ridiculous rule in our office regarding the electronic attendance. Even if we recorded our attendance 1 minute late via our so called ‘smart’ card, it showed a ‘L’ from the HR in our time sheet. L was for late. Three Ls for a trainee means a call from the HR in his den with a smiling assistant smirking over your slaughter. I had already 2 Ls in the last week. So, I rushed to the punching machine like a Ninja. All in vain I was late by 35 seconds.

24 February 2010.
7:20 am

I entered the office and found my boss missing. I was happier with the third L. My mail box informed me something positive about our project which was stuck since a year. The control panels were ready and we would finish the rest the coming week. I conspired to march to the GM’s cabin opposite to me to inform this. I planned all the way, did some homework, checked some past delivery reports and was ready to get in. Suddenly, I heard my colleague’s cell ringing. My favorite song was his ring tone and it came to my senses that I had lost my USB player. I thronged the canteen in no time and inquired about it with the care taker. He had no clues. I made him understand about how it looks like and on which table I left it. He told me to inquire again in the afternoon. And the answer was obvious. I lost it…!
It was difficult for me to imagine the 1 hour ride of the bus every morning and the same in the evening without music. However I revived myself with a chance to meet the GM. I did the homework all day because he was witty in his questions. At the end of the day I entered his cabin like the Jack Sparrow and informed him about the developments. To my surprise he asked me some project I was never working on. He grilled me hard and blew my mind away with some stagger sharpened remarks, In the morning, I lost the music and now I was facing it from the top notch. I left the office premises with a broken aorta; the music could have soothed me…!
I boarded the bus. The mute motion picture now turned like a cacophony to me. I was one of those who seldom slept in the journey and got bored all the way. Initially it was unbearable. One of my friends sitting in front of the seats cracked a joke over some idiotic advertisement over the radio and I laughed a lot. I began hearing the sounds of nature. I started sharing my comments over the joke. For the first time in the span of 200 days my journey was joyful despite being all fucked up at the office. I heard the chuckling birds with one of my friends sharing his pair of ear phones with me. I realized the joy of sharing in listening and then laughing over the audio. The morning was better than anticipated.

I used to be all isolated with the dull newspaper as my adherence to music made me do so. I left my haunted room. For the first time I heard the birds chuckle and crossing the rising sun. The milkman’s smirk and shrewdness in his voice made me felt like an alien to all this. The sound of the empty glasses in the chai wala’s rack made me feel the ambience around. I heard all the morning greetings from my friends. The greetings to which I used to answer with a smiling nod. I boarded the bus the mute motion picture began picking its melody. I became an active part of the early morning gossip of yesterday and the way my friends were going to fool their respective bosses for the day. I heard her voice that began chanting some Sanskrit verses in murmurings… The ‘Jai Hind’ from the security guard made me feel some pride. I lost my USB player loaded with some 100 odd songs that I iterated every morning and found the nature in its own sense to me..!

The world came to voice for me…!

Amit Purohit The Lone Soldier