Tick tock tick tock...

...day begins and the clock strikes and the thoughts trickle in.

Outside: It's a bright bright sunshiney day!
Inside: "Gawd! Have to go? Yup! Gotta go and show you're working hard and committed! Hrmph! B#$%h!"

Drive to work. No work. No play. Time passes by - tick tock tick tock!

Outside: Busy day for some. Regular day for others. Cribbity shitty day for the rest.
Inside: "So routine. Sigh! So mundane. Sigh! How many mails to check? Sigh! When am I going to walk out of here forever? Sigh! Will just walk out at the end of the month and feel a sense of relief. Sigh!

Time drags on - tick tock tick tock tick tock!

Outside: Hot and dry. Horrid food. Tepid company.
Inside: "What's going to be my high protein for the day? Fish it is! Yeah! 3 more meals to go and then hit the gym. Am doing good and feeling good with the way body is shaping up. Mmm...nice. I've got to keep the focus and commitment and actually I can. It didn't seem too tough the last 8 weeks. So easy to do something you believe in. Aah! So this is what belief can do. Now for some of that magic recipe that can change my outlook, my attitude, my fears, my life. Yeah right!"

Time hangs heavy. Time drags on. Time never stops - tick tock tick tock tick tock...

Outside: Insane drivers, insane roads, insane pedestrians. Hot and bright.
Inside: "No gym today. Don't feel like it. Ok will go. No no no, won't go. Can still make it a 5-day week if I go tomorrow through to Sunday. Nah! I'm ok. My body's turned into a fat-burning machine. Woooo! But if I go, I will feel better. What is wrong with me anyway? I wish I could put my finger on it. I don't have abiding memories of all of them. Did I not feel enough? Don't know. Maybe it'll come to me. Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree...ta raaaa!"

Drive drive and drive. Gears 3, 4, 5. Neutral. 5, 4, 3, 2, even 1. Tick tock tick tock...doesn't cease.

Outside: Fairly decent traffic. Motorable roads. Insane drivers. Insane pedestrians and hateful signals. Am home.
Inside:"Oops...forgot the bloody fines that I've got to pay. Ok..when you gotta go, you gotta go...so I'll go. Where, this one or that? Ok the one near the fly over. It's easier to get to. Just keep your cool miss. No point in losing it over money that is so transient anyways. Right...will go to R T Nagar traffic police station."

Brief description I: Before explosion
Park the car 2 cars away. Enter. One side of the partition, a middle-aged cop with a walkie-talkie, looking bored and completely jobless. This side has 3 men, 2 cops and one civilian (?), plain clothes cop (?), in a sparse white washed room, which has precisely one table, 2 chairs and perhaps some other furniture which I wasn't too keen to observe.

Dialogue and description and disjointed. In 3rd person, or no person.
It's 7.10 pm. Fines to pay. Aah! Sorry, but no one's there to collect fines. 10.30 am tomorrow morning. But it clearly states 8.00 am to 8.00 pm at any one of the following stations. Sorry can't help you. Is there any proof that said offence was commited? Pictures, video? Go to Public Utility building, M G Road. Cameras only in heav traffic areas. Can one see exactly this particular offence? Mmm...hmmm...er...yes. Sit madam. Come tomorrow madam. 10.30 am. But it clearly states in your letter here that...Oh never mind. If I go to Sadashiv Nagar police station you think they'd accept now? Haan Haan,...yes, go go. So where can I complain about this? No people madam. What to do? Is that my problem? Or do I have to bow down to the Almighty, because after all you are the God! Smirk smirk!

Inside: Tick tock tick tock tick tock.

Brief description II: Before explosion
Drive to the next police station in the same vicinity and listed in the notices. Park car. "Keep your cool. Pay up and be done with. Hate giving in, but need to be practical. Why me? Why not me? Oh chuck it. Just be done with and go home to warm, food." Same kind of sparse police station. One table, one man in plain clothes playing solitaire on the solitary computer. A couple of hangers on, another room, 3 people, perhaps cops and plain clothes, who cares.

In continuum - disjointed dialogue description. In 3rd person, no person.
Payment of fines? Just a second. Shout of a name. Enter pot-bellied young cop with that silly Western style cheap plastic stetson. Couldn't they get Wendell Rodricks to design their uniforms the way Goa police did? Hrmph hrmph! Letters? Bright computer. Peering at letter, enters some number. Nothing happens. I ask the same question about the evidence. You know Hindi? Cop sees. Cop takes down number. Cameras? Yes yes. Same query about where to complain...same answer. Life sometimes is like the inland letter. All templates, just got to fill in the blanks. Pause. See, if you want, go to...Look, I've come to pay. Just give me my receipt and I'll be gone and take action later on. Sorry madam, come tomorrow. New notice. Computer has no data. Could you tell me where to send in a complaint,..sir? Pause. Puzzled look. An email id, a web site, a phone no.? Pause mode. Immovable stance. Go to Utility Building, M G Road tomorrow. 2nd police station I've come to, should I visit all the police stations mentioned herein or is there something called conveience, just one day away from the 7 days' notice mentioned. Never mind that. Send your child or someone..no problem. Come tomorrow. What time sir? At exactly 5.05 pm sir? Walk out. Another cop in plain clothes explains. Walk out as he continues to speak.

Rush towards the car. Get inside. And scream!!!

Inside: Tick tock tick tock tick tock. Explode!

Epilogue:
Dear Isobel
I hope you're well and what you've done is right
Oh it's been such hellI wish you well and hope your safe tonight
It's been a long day coming and long will it last
When it's last day leaving, and I'm helping it pass
By loving you more

(From the song Isobel by Dido)