I am in an empty room. My room mates are gone. Junaid, or Jay, as we would call him lovingly, left last week. Naeem had left last year.

And now, it's an empty room.

There’s a knocking at the door. The first for the day. Had Jay been here, he would have opened our door even if it was three in the morning. I am the laziest of us three brothers: Jay, Naeem and I.

It takes me a while to realise that there is indeed someone knocking at my door. I am asleep. So the knocking must be going on in that sleep. Right?

The intensity increases. There’s a knocking so hard that the walls vibrate.

I have to pick my self up. Else Zee, the first person that knocks at our door each day, will break the wood out.

It is 8 am. I calculate. So I open the door, and get back to sleep. Important dreams to continue. Today, we were shopping out with my brother’s in-laws. A fight broke up.

It was a dream. Thank God it was a dream. The fight continues, and then arrives the more sober, second knock. It is my father at the door.

9 am. I calculate.

Again, I get back to sleep. I will be back in 15 minutes. I promise the world.

An hour and a half later, I am on the road. The crazy route. I have sort of started loving this route. I am not sure whether the way back home is more fun, or the way to my workplace. Or may be, it’s a tie.

This is late in the day. The sun, starting to heat things up. It’s a shame that I am so late to my office.

Heavy vehicles move this way and that. Transporting oil and stuff to other parts of the city. Kids, the kindergarten ones, getting back home. I wonder whether such schooling is a fuel-efficient option. Why burn so much fuel to get young toddlers 2 hours away from home.

A.b.c. One, two, three. After me.

911

Midway, a police van screens all in-coming cars. These are tough days in Karachi. People are dying each day. Its sad.

But, each day, I have to dodge these guys. Our police screens us for potential bribes. My fault, I have lost my driving license. So, these police guys would catch me everyday, for a 500 rupee penalty.

I did the math. If this were to continue, I would go broke. So, I mapped out a different route for myself. One without the Police van doing the screening.

11 am.

11 am. I have reached my workplace. My colleagues greet me. I pass them Greetings for the day, and then work begins.

I am Junior Geotech Engineer. So for starters, I am working on soil types for a certain dam being constructed in Sindh. However, a lot of the day gets used in doing stupid EXCEL stuff.

There’s this rumor in my office, that I am a Microsoft Excel expert. I always remind them, that I am still learning. They all disagree. So, all day long, I am moving in this building, like a Microsoft Pacman, solving Excel issues. Printing out reports for colleagues.

Junior Geotech engineer, I remind myself.

Ms. Asra, my colleague sitting in front, is busy doing the Hydraulic design of spillway. She is exceptional. She sort of works all day, from nine to five.

I work for 15 minutes at a stretch, which is followed by a 10 minute break, where I do my fun, personal stuff. Creative work.

Merey hathon mein noe noe churiyaan hein…

Caption: Me wearing bangles (Just for kicks!).

(Okay, I think I have bored myself out. I need some rest. Shall finish this write-up tomorrow!).

Friday, March 08, 2013 // // 1 comments //

About

Arif Samoon is a Junior Design Engineer at Techno Consult International. He completed his Bachelors in Urban and infrastructure engineering, from NED University in 2011. He loves his digital presence. Loves to code, write, and design.