Beyond the sky

3

We met at the terrace for the first time . I was placing my washed clothes on the wire to let them dry in the sun . 

"Hello . " He said . He was actually plumbing up some water tank component  . 

"Hi ." I smiled and got back to my work .

" How's your work going ? " He asked after a while wiping his greased hands with a cloth .

" Its going good .What about yours ? " I never felt anything but courteous . 

" Actually I am switching my job ." He said scratching the back of his neck .

"That's ....um nice ." I was surprised because he had a government job and in India it made you a king over millions of private sector workers . It was all about security and here this man was leaving it for some another .

" So what are you going to do ? " I asked him . 

"Actually I am trying to join some coaching center as a teacher  ." He replied.

"Don't you think leaving a government job for a coaching center is risky ? " I asked .

" You could tell me , you are a teacher too , right ? " He said .

"Well its different for me . I teach weekends." I said as a matter of fact . I taught in the orphanage for weekends and worked as an assistant editor for a tamil magazine on weekdays . I wasn't an IIT graduate or a very knowledgeable doctor with innumerable gold medals but I was proud and satisfied with my professions , it didn't got me billions of notes but peace that was above those notes .

" So you mean , I am making a mistake ? " He asked with a grim face .

" I can't tell . Anyway its your life .  Hope to see you soon ." I gave a smile and went downstairs . 

I couldn't help but think about the sanity of this man who was asking a stranger in the matters of his career .

Only later would I come to know that it was a way of starting conversation with me . He couldn't find any better thing to talk about as he didn't knew me well .

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