The Thirteen Rupee Travels – And More

Prologue - I've spoken about this gazillion times and yet, I feel I owe this experiance a lot more. So, disbelievers go away, but I assure - you will miss a lot... (Lot of what?) Anyway, since people are so jobless in the holidays, I'm sure one can spare time enough to read, once again, the story of my Thirteen Rupee Travels. So, here it goes... one last time.

The Earth felt white hot as I seemed to have reached the ends of the inhabited world. A blast of hot air seemed to boil the ground. His putrid breath lingered- ominous. Even, as in reflex action, my breath did cease… For I shalt not breathe Ammonia, Methelene Chloride and the likes. Nay, I shall find sweet Oxygen and only then will I rest!

‘Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd’, established in the year of the Lord 1992, is a company of great repute – and it has, I concede, lived up to its name until now, to say the least. And seeing signposts indicating ‘Orchid’ some 20 kilometres from my beachside abode, I took heart – ‘Quality and Comfort’, could I ask for more? I had wondered how lucky I was when I saw those majestic (when inside; from the outside – the adjective would be ‘monstrous’) buses plying the roads. These illusions kept me going, a fuel of some sort… It was 1^st June 2009 when truth finally dawned upon me!

It was that day when Providence decided to switch sides and how! The day when I would realize that the ‘Orchid’ sign 20km away is but the R&D Center and the plant I ought to go to was actually 42km from home; the day when they told me that their buses weren’t meant for trainees; the day I, being as naïve as I was then, accepted a project instead of observing my way out of the plant.

Soon, I was a regular visitor of Phase 25 – DMF, DMAC recovery section – the plant which is, as you might have guessed seeing how lucky I have been, the farthest unit from the main gate. My initial exponential learning curve (accompanied with, ‘This guy is from IIT!’ murmurs) reached saturation and I felt e^x had just been divided by some extraordinary number! Stagnation is never a pleasant experience, but put it together with a Chemical Industry and lack of company – Presto! You’ve brewed the most destructive concoction…

Well, I do not gloat when I say that I DID manage to solve the problem given to me, trivial though it definitely was NOT. This, using a subject I haven’t yet studied and I began, for the first time, contemplating a future in Chemical Engineering. But such joys are so often short lived, and the absence of things to do got to me fast. I began to wonder (and mentioned this to a friend or two) about how ‘Dolce far Niente’ had ceased to hold. The fact that I barely stayed in the factory for 3 hours at a stretch may speak for itself – but people failed to notice the effort behind the 3 hrs… the 2 hour travel either way on 13 Rupee bus tickets. I have a collection of these tickets now – a file full of them!

As in most stories, this one has a nice ending too. Albeit the solution, we have suffering… Albeit the suffering, a solution does exist! Scoff if you want to, but those idle times, which can be painful indeed, were no longer as idle… as I scaled the columns, and at a 50 foot height, simply stared at the sky – taking shelter behind a heat-exchanger or two. Backwaters at a distance make you forget that you still wander within the boundaries of an industry. And birds, I realized, inspired me as they did quite the same thing – sit and stare. Well, this joblessness was beautiful and 13 Rupee tickets were made worth the while…

As I walked away leaving the two mighty chimneys astern, the bright sun hid behind the cumulus gathering – which I noted were coloured in deep grey. The tree canopy notwithstanding, a first drop fell even as I stared heavenwards. It was not just Oxygen I had found – but a whole new side to life! I walked keeping true, readying myself for the two hour trip back home – with ‘Rain drops in the sky…’ – of the Colonial Cousins, on my lips…