Even the thought of going in there gave me jitters. I had been in one before but that was definitely not huge as this one would be. Even before I had stepped in there I started visualizing about it and the people who will be there with me. Last time the sentence was for 3 months but I had managed to break out within the first month. Now don’t ask me whether it was a break or parole but I had managed it and that itself made me happy. But this one.. I could sense there would be no escape from this one. My friend assured me that he would escort me to the door but after that I would be on my own inside there. The feeling itself brought a lump in my throat and I found it difficult to breathe like someone had just took away the oxygen mask from my ailing body lying on a hospital bed. Well the situation would be worse there and there won’t be any doctors in there to save me but people waiting for a prey to pounce on and dig into the body fat. Finally the morning came when I had to walk in there..
Gaurav was already waiting for me in the parking lot and as usual I came late. How could one muster strength to come on time? My eyes were red and it was clear that I had not slept well; probably the less-sleep reason went well and covered the real thing that I was crying the whole night not wanting to wake up just to head to the place which I had avoided for so many years. We walked in and surprisingly there was a girl who greeted us. I was simply taken aback and thought it must be their wicked ploy to keep a smiling face at the front just to conceal the hard life in there.
There she stood in the doorway
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself
This could be Heaven or this could be HellThe girl directed us to a man who was sitting in front of a computer probably reading the list of inmates and their sins for which they were brought in there. He motioned us to sit on a bench.. it was cold but it was better to sit somewhere rather than stand on two legs which were already going weak as the clock ticked by and my heart was beating at a faster rate probably racing with the ticking time; trying to take a leap in the time just in case if I reach the date I was going to be released from here. The man noticed my plight and he didn’t even pretend to hide the smirk on his face. After sitting for about 10 minutes in the same position my restlessness grew but I couldn’t do anything. I had to wait for my turn.. just wait for my turn. The man called us near his table and ordered us to sit on the chairs. Then he threw a pen and a piece of paper towards me and asked me to fill in my details there. It was a tough task even lifting the pen.. even in such a situation the proverb ‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ struck my mind and I felt like smiling but then remembered that smiles were a distant past now. There was a section where I had to fill in the company name and when I wrote it the man muttered under his breath “IT company eh? So you fall under a privileged group here”. Privilege!! What the hell did this word mean here? Does that mean I get to work less than the others or will they strip me naked and make me lie on plank of ice? The thoughts that were racing in my mind were really scary and I was more scared than those thoughts. After filling in the form I was taken to a corner and made to stand on a weighing machine and later my height was noted down. Probably they design a coffin for each and every person in case they don’t make it back to the outside world. They say it is a big bad world out there.. what I was going to witness was going to be far more bad. The smiling girl called me and they clicked a few pictures and pasted it on the form. I was made to position my thumbs on a scanning device and my fingerprints were taken. I was instructed that the first thing every morning every person here has to do is to register his fingerprints so that it ensures the person has not fled the place. The worse thing is when your mind keeps on thinking; I thought if someone had to break out from here he will have to cut off his thumb and give it to someone who will give the impression to the authorities that the person was well inside the premises. Similar to the way we used to mark attendance in college.. proxy rules everywhere! After ranting a few other instructions the girl asked me to follow her and the big door opened and the loud din inside pierced the silence which was ruling in the reception area. Instantaneously my hands went on to clasp my ears and I hurriedly followed the girl. Once inside I was left in a daze as I saw so many people being made to work on different kinds of machines. It reminded me of the light-n-sound show I had seen in Cellular Jail in the Andamans where Veer Savarkar was made to ground a coconut with hands to produce oil. But here there were not only men but women too and I could see that all faces were pale and harassed. Every person was staring at me and I could feel the heat of their eyes on me or was it the feeling of the cold sweat beads which were trickling down my forehead. The smiling girl was talking to a stern faced girl and motioned me to come near. The smiling girl told me that this new girl would tell me what to do next. As if I was in a trance words tumbled out of my mouth “Ok! So she is my jailor..”. Both the girls looked at me with surprise; the smiling girl said “Jailor?? Dude you are in a gym not a jail. She is your trainer not jailor”. Amidst peals of laughter thus started my first day at the new gym.. he he.
Fine, the story is almost fake and the pic is real but not of a prison. The pic was taken at a hotel while returning to Pune from Goa and the slate bears the menu (I edited it a bit.. real pic will be uploaded soon :D). The first thing that struck me after seeing the menu on the slate was to get a pic in this pose. Well there won’t be a time a good guy like me will get to pose like this so.. :P Hopefully there won’t be a time like this because in the recent police raid at a holi party, where drugs were being used in full swing, might be there were really a few innocent guys who were locked up. So work hard, party harder but stay away from drugs and be safe. By the way I really joined a new gym and the trainer is really strict. I can still hear her booming voice from today’s abs’ session ‘1..2.. up.. more’... phew!! I am happy that summer is here coz I am enjoying my favourite fruit.. watermelon.. not mangoes coz I like the aamras more than a plain mango. Might be Ishita will post her summer list :P.
