The Dream Degenerates (Read Living the Dream, then The Dream Gone Sour and then this one)

Living and working in Inda - albeit for 2 years already, and perhaps for several more months is very much like dreaming.. sometimes it is more nightmare than dream..but definitely a transitory break from reality.

Now here's where I cannot tell whether the dream has crossed over into being a nightmare.......... its definitely not the same dream......

The alarm goes off at 4:45am . I step out of bed, hop into the shower, get dressed, pick up my "light briefcase" and head downstairs. Mukesh is waiting with the "commuter car" he uses to ferry himself from his home near the airport to work - which in his case is my home in Gurgaon.

My suitcase, packed the previous night by Salyani, for an overnight trip, is already sitting in the front seat (the trunk is too small for the suitcase). We make it to the airport in about 15-20 mins, and I battle my way in to catch my flight to Mumbai, Pune or Bangalore as the case may be for that particular day.

Thankfully, Lekhni has telechecked me in the previous night.. so I am assured of an aisle seat. You are only allowed one bag in the cabin. However, I had the foresight to acquire a dainty briefcase (yes a dainty briefcase, imagine me with a dainty briefcase) that could pass off for a large, ostentatious purse. So I stick my regular purse into the suitcase, and avoid the baggage check-in process. I wrestle my way through getting a boarding pass, and through security and onto the coach that takes me to the airplane.

I settle into my aisle seat, convert my versatile dupatta into a blanket and go back to sleep. I arrive at my destination, find my driver, and get to wherever I am supposed to work that day. Some places are good, others so-so. Arrive back at the hotel - quake at the ransom the company pays for you to sleep in a good hotel, go to sleep, hit the snooze bar a few times and wish you could sleep several more hours.

You return to work in another, not so strange anymore, city, fondly thinking of Gurgaon as home, and of the days when you actually excercised, rode a bike and pretended to be learning how to swim.. whatever happened to all that ?