“I’m here without you baby, but you’re still always on my mind. I think about you baby, and I dream about you all the time. I’m here without you baby, but you’re still with me in my dream, and tonight girl, its only you and me”. An annoying mosquito buzzing inside Sins’ ear repeatedly since the past three or so seconds, bought his melancholy humming to an abrupt end, just when he had been preparing for the chorus that lay ahead.
The past few hours had been a blur.
The only thing Sins remembered was her message, that she had some personal work and didn’t want to see him that day. He didn’t mind the blunt communication; in fact he preferred bluntness, because it saved time, instead of delaying the inevitable, but of course, the fact was that, among the more general public out there, there were quite a many whose mental makeup got in the way; being used to a process of dallying, gossiping, rumour mongering and searching for mundane things to talk about rather than focusing on more issues that could potentially be useful; some amount of gossip was fine, it is after all necessary for co-operation and effective communication, but he wasn’t a fan of extending it beyond a certain point, rather, get straight to the point. He was sure the quantity and quality of words was a definite variable that impacted the nature of all human relationships.
The word ‘blunt’ is inherently perceived as a word having a slight negative connotation to it, probably the way it sounded during pronunciation to the vast majority of the English speaking population. Straight-forward sounded better. He liked her straight-forwardness. It was endearing in a way in which he couldn’t exactly fathom right now, but over the duration of a few weeks, he did notice a few things that made him like talking to her, like the instance when she had told him she was going to stay sober and work on her health, but hadn’t; like the majority of people around, she too was having a hard time following habits that were long-term in nature rather than the instant gratifications available to binge on, all around. Like the instance when, she had coyly said, she was religious and believed in a force greater than humans; an intelligent designer who was out there pulling the strings of the cosmos and of each and every species that inhabited it.
Like the instance when she had flexed her biceps at him when they had been sipping green tea on the terrace and Sins couldn’t help staring at it in wonder because they were so well formed, the trajectory of the long bicep head perfectly binding with the deltoid muscle; her gleeful grin firmly in place, that signified the pride of achievement, a small milestone one cherishes in life, as long as he or she managed to maintain or go from one milestone to the next, being the condition. These small moments, were exactly that, small and probably, insignificant in the life and times of most people, not the least of which, included, her. Not that Sins cared much, because the communication had been very clear from day one.
He had snapped back into attention at five in the evening, after realizing that more than half of his tasks he had written about yesterday to be done today, was still pending. He cursed slightly loudly, much to the consternation of his colleague, who stared at him disapprovingly, like swatting away an irksome fly, with an intent to kill it if it returned.
He decided to go the gym, refresh and return back with a renewed focus, already thinking about how good the Subway sandwich would taste, with its assortment of lamb, turkey and chicken meat, green vegetables and sauces after a session of lifting weights and some body-weight exercises. Like a man possessed by the voice of his ancestor’s hunter-warrior spirits, the images of bonfires, roasting humans and animals alike like a steak, flashing around his eyes, coupled with the shrieks of mass genocides, he methodically proceeded to execute each repetition of all his exercises, like a diligent cashier counting each note of currency. The adrenaline was pumping, his blood was racing, his heart was beating faster than a galloping horse, when he decided to call it a day, lest he ignored the tasks and kept it pending for tomorrow. One of the tasks included understanding the rules and limitations of the financial system so that he could play around them, or better still, completely bypass them.
He ran towards the exit after a quick cold shower for no reason whatsoever, only for the access-locked door to stubbornly resist his swiping attempts for a few seconds. He broke into a slight sweat, as he waited for the system to respond back to him positively. Inside the lift, heading downstairs, his mind was already racing. At his age he couldn’t afford to assume he had all the time in the world, not that he was stressed about it, rather the opposite. He wanted to enjoy all the endeavors he was currently in the midst of. He simply didn’t want to waste time to focus on instant gratification; but continuously learn and adopt for the coming fifty years, a world that would be his for the taking provided the level of his thought focused on being pro-active rather than reactive, as a majority of people would struggle to understand the implications of technology on existing social, cultural and economic structures.
The world was constantly changing. Most just didn’t know it yet. By the time they did, it would be too late. Sad, but true. Law of the Jungle. Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Marijuana Maharaj 