A Conundrum

It was 02.25PM. Tirupathi was simmering with rising Mid-Sunday heat. Up in the hills, the queue was very long and had to contend with both the scorching summer and very little space. But the weekend crowd was undeterred. Inspite of all the struggles, they were determined and jostled for any available space. Few exhausted people had to get off the queue, cursing their timing and crowd. Some even smeared Lord Venkateshwara for all their troubles.

Down the hills, in a hotel room which offered wide panorama of the hills, the Lord Balaji temple and the Railway station which is adjacent to the hotel, Ram was not worried about his ruined chances of worshipping the deity the previous day. He was in a deep slumber. It was Lord Venkateshwara’s wish that he had to wake up and check time. He never wore a watch. He always had his mobile, handy to show him the right time. He opened his eyes lazily; pressed a button in his mobile to check time and he was suddenly bolted out of the blue. He realized that he had overslept and on the verge of missing his 02.30PM bus. Thankfully for him, he had completed packing before he dozed off. Acting swiftly, he collected his baggage, took the keys, locked and ran out of the room without double checking his things.

It was a long passageway. He did not have enough time and patience to wait for the elevator. He cannot afford waiting for it. Without thinking twice, he reached the steps and started jumping off them. He had to check-out from the hotel and collect the refund for advance payment. It was Venkateshwara again that fortunately for him, many were still not prepared to leave the town without visiting His Abode leaving the check-out counter empty. He was sweating profusely, threw the keys at the cashier and was pleading harder with the cashier to process him out quickly. Cashier was kind and experienced enough to quickly find his papers and asked him to simply sign them. Ram checked the time. It showed 02.27PM. He quickly signed declaring his acknowledgement receiving the refund and before the cashier could give out the refund, he was already out of the hotel.

Before he could get to an auto stand, various thoughts ran through his mind. He was calculating the various possible ways to reach the bus station faster. He knew that, it would just take 3 minutes if he can pay more and coax the auto driver to keep the accelerator backwards. It was not difficult for him to get one such driver. The driver was more than willing for this adventure. The adventure ride had started. The driver jumped few traffic signals and the by lanes were quickly sped past. Ram checked the time. It showed 02.30PM. Ram’s heart was pounding at him. Panic started to grip. He did not know what to do and was completely at the mercy of an unknown auto driver who was paid to violate the traffic rules and in the process, endanger few human lives. He feverishly tapped the driver’s shoulders and mouthed few words which he could barely listen. The driver was annoyed but decided not to take notice of him. It was best for him to ignore Ram’s appeals.

The driver was right. The bus station was in sight in no time. It got Ram excited. He took one hundred buck and forced it into the driver’s shirt pockets. Before the auto came to a halt, he jumped out of it. The auto driver had started counting the payment and when he had a look at Ram, he was running faster in the station. Ram did not know the platform number and there were too many people roaming around, yet too less to be enquired. His mind was in such confusion. He saw everything and nothing. He wandered aimlessly and his mind was blank. He tried to gain composure and had a look at time, hoping that that would be the last time he would see it that way. It showed 02:35PM. He was praying harder that, the bus would be waiting for him. He looked around. After few frantic searches, he finally spotted his bus some 50 meters away. It was moving slowly as if hoping of finding a missing passenger.

He was consumed by hysteria. He did not see anyone coming behind, did not see anyone walking aside. He did not bother to bring down anyone who stood in his way. Fellow passers-by wore an amused look at him and they did not understand what this fuss was all about. He did not hear them use cuss words at him. He saw only one thing. His bus to Bangalore. His excitement was so much that he assumed all things that stood in his way are poor living things and can be easily pushed or kicked away and he mistook a hard rock stone to a black dog and ran into it. His left knee made a strong impact with the rock and that was good enough to bring him down. His head swiveled around and hit another stone near-by. Now the impact was much more, sending alarm signals to every part of the brain. He shouted in agony.

He was bolted from within as his Rapid Eye Movement was stopped abruptly. He sprang up from his bed and looked around. He was in a confused state. His baggage was still at the same place before he dozed off. Everything in his hotel room was at the same place as he last saw. His head and leg were safe but his eyes were burning. He was still trying to come to terms with reality. He checked his time. It showed 02.25PM.

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