The Changing Perspectives …
“It takes about 10 min on one of those shared auto-rickshaws of (which rules the roads of Kolkata in a falsification that they were F1 tracks!) to take Neo from his PG to University gate number four. It is almost 10 minutes to 10...if he makes a mad dash now, he may make it in time for the 10 am lecture and save himself the reprimand… however the whole thought is constrained to one factor, if he manages to secure a transport, in the office hour madness of the city of joy…certainty of which is mathematically nil… and Neo knows that… not getting a place in the auto-rickshaw, eventually has two outcomes, take a rickshaw, which will demand Rs. 6/- that will be Rs. 3/- more than a his first choice of transport... (that’s double the money!) OR dare the heat and humidity of Kolkata and embark on the journey on foot… both of this will however, eventually meet one result… he will be late for his class (a little more… or a little less)… hence the choices for Neo now leads to one logical outcome… taking a deep sigh… and tugging is backpack… Neo lauches himself on the road… somehow satisfied, some money saved for the day…”
“Sir would you like to have anything else”; Neo’s escapade into his past is broken by the waiter. It was a beautiful Saturday evening in Bangalore, and he was sitting in one of these up-market coffee-shops near his house, and like most of the time lost in his thoughts. He thanked the waiter, and asked for the bill, which was soon brought to him. It read Rs. 150, Rs. 150 for a cup of coffee! Considering everything that had been thinking, that certainly puts his life into perspectives. Life has changed, from that rebel hearted skinny boy of Kolkata to the man who’s life goes in and out of the corporate culture here in Bangalore. Yes, if one freezes the frame in the present, success is all around him. A coveted institute, a coveted degree and now a top quartile job. However, for Neo, it’s the journey and not the destination that matters. The perspectives to life have changed all around him. But, his inner self knows where he has come from and how has been this journey.
Recalls those days, where the a normal local call from a mobile would cost Rs. 4 per minute and once Neo leaves the city to go back to his hometown (during those agonizing days which the university authorities named as “vacation”), the only way to reach to his “darling” would be to make some pretext, run to the nearest STD booth, to make a phone call, always keeping an ardent eye of on the ticking fare meter and bench-marking it against the currency notes in his pocket. Now…a call from the other side of the planet is made without any hesitation and more than once a day during his business tours. Life has changed indeed!! Neo smiles to himself and to the perspectives of everyone around, it’s been rewarding.
Rewarding, may not exactly be the word Neo would like to describe it. Penetrating through the glitz and glamour, his rebel self still questions him. It this, what he is destined to or is there something else. Neo knows the answer, beyond the alluring neons of this materialistically satisfying life which to the world around, is the life to lead, a greater goal waits. A time will beckon, when he needs to elevate himself and set his rebel free. Perspectives will change again, for the world around him. However and importantly the biggest change will be his owns perspective towards himself.
