Jan 9, 2020.
Arnav had packed all his stuff and was waiting for the bus to arrive. His roommate Suraj was giving him company. The bus, a private sleeper, was as usual, pricey and late by more than an hour.
"To pay 1500 rupees and wait for over an hour... It's always testing my patience dude", Arnav was saying.
"That's how it is da. Don't fret. Call the driver again and check where he is. After waiting for an hour and then missing the bus because he sped away from us, it will be more painful than the wait. Your luggage will turn into a nightmare too", Suraj teased him.
'I'm not going to return to this city ever again. All these modern struggles and every single pain I felt here, the darkness that always hovered in my skies - I'm going to move away from everything', Arnav was thinking.
He called the driver again who didn't pick up the first time and answered on the second time with utmost disgust as if Arnav was looking for a free ride home. The driver said the bus had crossed Perungalathur and asked Arnav to give the precise location of his pick-up stop. Arnav gave clear instructions that he was waiting with luggage on the highway road side near Guduvancheri bus stop. The driver cut the call.
Arnav felt a tinge of nervousness. Did he make the right decision? For there was no turning back. He always stood at loggerheads with his mind during conflicting decisions. Quitting his job in a renowned MNC without any backup plan was indeed a bigger conflicting decision in his life, in anybody's life. It was not an easy choice to make, also it didn't help when it was the only choice you could make.
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August 2016Arnav joined MyTech, a giant IT firm in India in 2016 during his college placement with zero interest whatsoever. He had no knowledge or idea in coding languages but was extremely good with aptitude and communication.
The training was strenuous and after two months of feeling invalid in a technical atmosphere where everybody seemed so much selfish and ruthless. He didn't like a single person there. It felt like a market where people used each other left and right. You either belonged like that or you stood out like a sore thumb. Arnav was a sore thumb indeed.
He was a diligent student from school days and that helped him to make notes during classes and half the concepts went over his head. He tried reaching out to the dummy geniuses whose personality screamed 'Toxic' but all the others wanted to be associated with them, or rather, for passing the training, they needed to use their brains for improving their own.
Arnav never stayed in class after 5:30pm and he wandered around the campus and went back to his room to watch FRIENDS, for the nth time and talk with his mother and chat with his friends, then sleep (if it ever came in smoothly).
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Shards of Love
RomanceHey readers! Shards of Love is eligible for The Wattys 2024 and has been successfully submitted. He knows he's broken. He knows he hit rock bottom. He doesn't know to give up. He is a warrior. He fights back. She is also a warrior but a different o...