Windows of Joy

Mobile phone blares the latest trending song. 

Time to rise and shine. Can't sleep for long!

Another day of adulthood, take it on like the champion that you are. 

Pour yourself some hot coffee, or masala tea in a jar, 

If coffee is not your cup of tea. 

Half an hour precisely, you have; to drink your hot beverage, 

Have your bowl of that new cereal that came in that cool looking package.

Shower, get dressed and be on your way out. 

Carpe diem! Plug in those earphones as you go about

Listen to your favourite tunes, or that podcast on winning in life. 

And then endure the next 10 hours of work-work-work-work

Share a cup of coffee/ tea with your peers, when you're out of luck

Or share your miseries. If you have no friendly peer,

Log on to instagram and share existential memes and sneer. 

Windows of joy you create in joyless concrete jungles.  

 

The clock tolls 9. Finally, it's time to log out and go home.

Now get ready for the same routine in reverse; or the night mode.  

Music or podcast on the metro and the walk back  

Those 5 minutes of walk is all the exercise you have, don't slack. 

At home, pour yourself a cup of coffee, or masala chai, if coffee is not your cup of tea. 

And for dinner, is it instant noodles tonight? 

Oh perhaps the new soy one? That would be alright.

Or are you ordering in like you did yesterday? And the day before yesterday? 

And the day before that? It's easier - just open the app, place the order and pay. 

The food is hot and tasty, healthy eating can wait. 

If you're living with someone, there will be conversations

About your day and about the things in the house.

And then you get back to your room, open your phone

And doom scroll till midnight or longer. You call this your comfort zone. 

Windows of joy you create in the joyless concrete jungles of your life. 

Share memes and joke about pointless things,

Scroll on amazon or myntra, why not add to cart that cute pair of earrings?

Or watch an obscure Malayalam movie from the 70s on YouTube

And then a five minute video of an ant trying to nibble on a sugar cube.

Thank the non existent god for YouTube. Window of joy. 

This is the pinnacle of purposeful living in your youth, gurus swear. 

This is what that expensive degree has brought you, the bounties of a blooming career. 

Atleast you don't have to worry about child care

Hustle hard 24*7 for 6 days a week and all will be fair. 

What is life, but the unending struggle between weekends? 

When will this collective pretense end? 

About finding purpose in this sheer accident of birth called life? 

About the supposed success in career that is gained

Only by the unending laborious climb of the corporate ladder

Windows of joy you must create before retirement or death, whichever comes faster.