I have been working in a refinery for 3 years now, and anyone who knows about a refinery will know what a shutdown means... anyways... for the remaining unrefined people, shutdowns are when we "switch off" all of the gazillion pumps,motors and gizmos and start fixing and servicing and adding more of them... and this is just a crude way to put it..The point is , basically we B.TeCHs end up working more than 12 hours :''(... Yeah i know.. Its too much..
This time, the shutdown was just around the corner and i was dreading the fact. I was supposed to get up at 4 am to reach office by 6 am tomorrow. And i was supposed to do it for 40 days! It was already 11 in the night and i was little too lazy to coax myself to have dinner. Finally my stomach literally "groaned" so i had to leave my comfortable chair to feed my grumblin stomach. By the time i finished the ritualistic good nights and sweet dreams on my cell phone, the hour hand of the clock was playing hide and seek... I sleepily set multiple alarms on my cell phone and my clock for 4 am and drifted off slowly into my dreams.
I woke up to look at the quiet clock as the hour hand was now at 7, PANIC!.. My head was sketching the various lies that i would weave at office that morning and my hands were working at maximum speed to get me ready as soon as possible. I was really busy brushing my teeth,wearing my shirt and searching for my socks, all at the same time when the bell rang... "WHO'S THERE??" I shouted. "Its me Praveen!" My boss's voice answered back. PANIC!!.. I opened the door and he started beeping...loudly! I woke up with a start and realized that my fourth alarm on the phone was ringing away like mad at 4:30 am. The other three i believe had failed in their assigned task.. I took some seconds to recuperate from the wierd dream...then groggily went about the daily morning necessities and with whatever blurry vision i had at that time, dressed up and left. I had to jump the short locked gate of my apartment to get out, which felt like a herculean task, which otherwise would just be a skip forthe monkey an active person like me..
Now i was to wait for my Morning shift Office bus.The morning shift bus stops at any place where the driver recognizes the employee on its predefined route. Thanks to me being ME, that the driver knew me quite well. But the place where i wait for my bus is actually a pretty dark location, so i knew i'd have to maybe jump and wave for the driver to stop. Standing there at this ridiculous time.. i was feeling weird.. the road dwellers were sleeping in every angle and shape, like empty biscuit wrappers and shady people walking by, suspiciously looking at the sleepy engineer who had buttoned his shirt all wrong standing in the middle of nowhere... I was early to the bus stop i realized as ten long sleepy minutes had passed and the bus had not yet arrived. YAY! Ten more mins of sleep for tomorrow.. My head had made a noteworthy observation for the first time in the past hour.
After a while, i boarded the bus. My vision again seemed to be limited, i could not recognize anyone,half coz the driver had switched off the lights and half coz my eyes were half open anyways.. I sat and started dozing off. The driver was speeding away to glory. The red KSRTC bus that our company has so lovingly assigned for us is notVERY at all comfortable, i was struggling to fall asleep. Anyways, it was nice and cold i realized. But the bus driver seemed to have taken a different route and nobody was bording the bus at all. If you know me well, you'd know that I am not all that great with roads, so i dint think right to correct the driver. And it seemed as if it had become darker outside, and everything felt so comfortable.... and out of nowhere i felt someone poking my hand "SIR?? SIR!! YOUR ID PLEASE..". I woke up to see the guard as a bus full of onlookers were waiting for me to show my ID. I had fallen asleep an hour back and the bus had reached the office gate, where they check everyone's ID and the guard had found me sleeping... By the time i realised all this, my bag had fallen down and i seemed to have forgotten where my ID was... but strangely the guard moved on to the next guy. It seemed like a great mystery to me as to why he dint wanna see my ID anymore. And my head was unable to come up with any explanations. I bent down to pick up my bag and my ID that was hanging from my neck hit the floor...
I knew it was a long day ahead of me, and I was right.. I was sleepy all day and i was wondering whats going to happen on the other 39 days! Life.. when you're up by 4 AM sure is different...
Whoa!! Its 11!! Damn! I gotta eat!
This time, the shutdown was just around the corner and i was dreading the fact. I was supposed to get up at 4 am to reach office by 6 am tomorrow. And i was supposed to do it for 40 days! It was already 11 in the night and i was little too lazy to coax myself to have dinner. Finally my stomach literally "groaned" so i had to leave my comfortable chair to feed my grumblin stomach. By the time i finished the ritualistic good nights and sweet dreams on my cell phone, the hour hand of the clock was playing hide and seek... I sleepily set multiple alarms on my cell phone and my clock for 4 am and drifted off slowly into my dreams.
I woke up to look at the quiet clock as the hour hand was now at 7, PANIC!.. My head was sketching the various lies that i would weave at office that morning and my hands were working at maximum speed to get me ready as soon as possible. I was really busy brushing my teeth,wearing my shirt and searching for my socks, all at the same time when the bell rang... "WHO'S THERE??" I shouted. "Its me Praveen!" My boss's voice answered back. PANIC!!.. I opened the door and he started beeping...loudly! I woke up with a start and realized that my fourth alarm on the phone was ringing away like mad at 4:30 am. The other three i believe had failed in their assigned task.. I took some seconds to recuperate from the wierd dream...then groggily went about the daily morning necessities and with whatever blurry vision i had at that time, dressed up and left. I had to jump the short locked gate of my apartment to get out, which felt like a herculean task, which otherwise would just be a skip for
Now i was to wait for my Morning shift Office bus.The morning shift bus stops at any place where the driver recognizes the employee on its predefined route. Thanks to me being ME, that the driver knew me quite well. But the place where i wait for my bus is actually a pretty dark location, so i knew i'd have to maybe jump and wave for the driver to stop. Standing there at this ridiculous time.. i was feeling weird.. the road dwellers were sleeping in every angle and shape, like empty biscuit wrappers and shady people walking by, suspiciously looking at the sleepy engineer who had buttoned his shirt all wrong standing in the middle of nowhere... I was early to the bus stop i realized as ten long sleepy minutes had passed and the bus had not yet arrived. YAY! Ten more mins of sleep for tomorrow.. My head had made a noteworthy observation for the first time in the past hour.
After a while, i boarded the bus. My vision again seemed to be limited, i could not recognize anyone,half coz the driver had switched off the lights and half coz my eyes were half open anyways.. I sat and started dozing off. The driver was speeding away to glory. The red KSRTC bus that our company has so lovingly assigned for us is not
I knew it was a long day ahead of me, and I was right.. I was sleepy all day and i was wondering whats going to happen on the other 39 days! Life.. when you're up by 4 AM sure is different...
Whoa!! Its 11!! Damn! I gotta eat!
