Matrix- A Journey to Office (short story)

"Arre... eat your sandwich properly" she commanded in a stern voice, looking at me as though I was a disgrace to civility. "How typical a wife can she be?" I thought, as I tried to do a balancing act on my left leg pulling up the socks on my right. My mouth was already stuffed with a slice of sandwich and that was all I could afford with the little time I had. "Sorry dear…I gotta reach office by 9.45 ...mmmnn... an impor...tant conference call..." I mumbled, the words filtering out through the stuffed sandwich like an old track record gone awry. But the important thing was that she understood and that meant precious time saved. "In any case, the matrix awaits me and that would digest anything by the time I reach office" I said with a smile lest she frowned (and that would mean greater trouble)."Okay" she finally said with a sigh, "but have something once you reach there". "Sure", I said without losing another second. As the eager legs managed to fit into the shoes, the eyes took a quick look at the hands of the clock. I knew the challenge will be a tough one today.

A quick peck on the cheek and I was ready. As I marched out of the gate, suddenly I found myself standing at the threshold of the matrix, the hot and humid May morning sun glaring down at me .The action starts in no time and there is no stopping once you are in. Across the two-laned road stood the two important characters of my story, Neo (the driver) and his deadly three-legged devil (the auto rickshaw).They looked so harmless that you almost get fooled. The traffic moved on, but I managed to cross the road without too much acrobatics involved. At a distance, Neo stared at me. His left hand rested on his hips while his right hand was engaged in digging into the depths of his not so beautiful teeth; probably in search of the remnants of yesterday's dinner. "SDF dada?" he asked casually, his right hand continuing with the engagement. As I nodded in agreement, he directed me to the front seat of the three-wheeler beside his own. "So, it is economy class today." I thought as I looked at the three people already occupying the business class seats at the back. Neo took the driver's seat and I managed to make myself comfortable with the economy class accommodation to his left. The seats were extended sturdy wooden ones, each clamped on either side of the driver's seat. Neo pulled up the lever with known expertise, making the three legged terror roar to life and ready to rule the roads. "SDF! SDF!" Neo announced to the passersby popping his head out through the open side. There was still one more seat to be occupied before we started our destined journey. A young lady was the answer to Neo's sound prayers. Neo slid with ease to his right and asked me to do the same for accommodating the lady to my left. The matrix has started. Neo would be driving the devil seating to the extreme right, his left foot in charge of the brakes instead of his right and I was in the driver's seat without being the driver. To add to it, a lady in that cramped space only increased the discomfort level.

The auto moved forward from the narrow lane into the busy road and I found myself staring at windscreen. That was the only thing I could do now. I couldn't help visualizing myself inside an NFS game. Only this time, I wasn't driving a Lamborghini or a Lexus, my computer screen was replaced by a partially cracked windscreen of an auto rickshaw and most importantly, I wasn't the one in charge!

Salt Lake is perhaps the one of the few properly planned areas in Kolkata and the government took great pride in declaring it as a showpiece of the city. Over the last few years, this area has seen tremendous growth and the ever increasing traffic bears testimony to this truth. Although divided into a number of sectors, it is Sector-5 that is the heart of Kolkata's corporate world and that is where destiny brings me every morning. "The government should think about building a few flyovers at some pla...ces..." my thoughts were suddenly disturbed by the sound of screeching tires.

The auto swerved to the right and came to a halt, inches away from the rusted metallic bumper of the blue city bus. Neo’s eyes blazed with fire. As he shot a never ending dialogue of his enriched vocabulary at the bus driver, I realized what had happened. Our auto was following the city bus for quite sometime and unsuccessfully made a few attempts to overtake it. Neo was frustrated, but the bus driver had his own intentions. To allow an auto rickshaw to overtake his bus would be a shame; but he couldn't resist a couple of passengers waving their hands on the road ahead. The latter held greater priority, obviously! The result... Brakes slammed to stop the bus just in front of the passengers followed by enormous expertise of Neo to save our poor souls. As the situation turned serious, I thought I was definitely going to be late to office, but destiny decided otherwise for a change. The bus driver popped his charming face out of the window chewing a paan, the red-stained lips complimenting his 'khatarnaak' look. He gave Neo a piece of his own mind in reply to the latter's volley of uncensored vocabulary and thankfully went on his way. My ears felt hot, as the lady beside me tried to ignore what she heard. "Big Brother would have hard time beeping every time Neo opened his mouth, if he ever happened to be on the show" I thought gleefully.

Sulking under his breath, Neo re-launched the auto with vengeance and renewed vigor. The gears screamed as they put the devil into a murderous mood. As adrenaline rushed in, Neo went into overdrive overtaking anything that came in his path. I imagined how it would feel to be a part of an F1 race. Perhaps, Neo was metamorphosing into a Michael Schumacher. "The F1 sponsors should take a look at Neo" I thought.

The breeze rushed in and I couldn't help notice that the people at the back had stopped their conversation. They were concentrating more on grabbing the side bars of the vehicle or rather anything that looked solid enough. I was also trying to keep myself steady. Applying more amount of pressure on the floor wasn’t helping much. Neo was bent upon shifting the center of gravity every now and then with his swift turns. I wondered what the lady beside me was thinking. She had a multifaceted task at hand, something we software people have learnt to master over time. Trying to hang onto the auto without falling and maintaining a somewhat comfortable position sitting alongside a complete stranger didn’t seem a cool job for her. I felt sorry for her, but Neo seemed in no mood for mercy. With horns blaring on, the devil went ahead with the rampage.

"Oh God!" my prayers went up for the only help that might work "Here I was stuck in a game that offered no second chances." My prayers were finally answered when Neo's terror run came to a standstill at the main traffic point. Our auto stopped behind a Govinda-colored yellow taxi (somehow the yellow colored taxis always reminded me about Govinda and his costumes).I was just sighing in relief when I noticed that something was irritating my eyes. I took a glance at the lady by my side. Her neatly tied hair was undone and all over her face. Some loose strands found their way onto my cheeks. "Clinic plus!" my nose confirmed. Perhaps my actions made her realize the discomfort, as she readily tried to arrange her hair into a bun. In the meantime, Neo somewhat attained his composure. He turned on the FM radio inside the glove box and tuned through the channels. An old melody "Ye reshmi julfe.... ye sharbati aankhen..." blared out through the speakers and suddenly I felt my ears turn red again. As I contemplated about how to stay normal without getting embarrassed, this time the savior was my mobile phone. With great skill, I managed to bring out the ringing mobile from deep inside my trouser pocket. On any other day, I would have cursed that my mobile always rang at wrong places and at wrong times, but for this time I was grateful that it did. I took a look at the number and picked up the call. It was my Team Lead. In the din of the traffic, the only thing I could make out was that the meeting has been postponed for afternoon. "Someone up there was looking after me today", I thought.

After ten minutes of extreme patience (that seemed ages) amidst chaos and the sweltering heat, the traffic seemed to move forward. "It must have looked like a giant snake crawling forward at its own pace", I imagined. Slowly, the auto crawled on, almost colliding with the taxi ahead a couple of times; but saved again. After all, it was Neo in charge. Finally, as we crossed the traffic point, the traffic dispersed a bit and Neo was back to action overtaking clumsy vehicles. The lady got down a little ahead at Millennium Park. Her expression showed that she was relieved. "Probably, she worked in IBM" I thought, "But she would not forget the experience she had today for a long time!" On second thoughts, maybe she would. After all, it was Neo and who knows what happens tomorrow. "Maybe, another deja vu!" I found myself smiling. Neo looked at me suspiciously and my smile disappeared. Some more action on the road and eventually I reached my destination. I handed him the change and got down. As Neo raced ahead with the rest of his passengers, I watched him leave for a moment. I had arrived and my feet were on the ground. It seemed amazing to still be in one piece. I looked at the office ahead and then at my watch. It was 9.45 am and I was very much there. Right on time! As I proceeded with my final steps towards the lift, I pondered over my adventure. "Deja vu! Deja vu!” the words echoed in my mind. It will be another story when I return back home in the evening.