A Lift Call

ABDUL WAJID

“5^Th Floor… Tring”, aired the lift system to my desperate ears as I was rushing to the ground floor for appetizing my hunger in the lunch break. As the doors started to open, the adrenaline rushed more into my body to force me to jump-in. To my surprise, the lift was packed with unfamiliar faces which looked fuming for interrupting their lift journey by a traitor from another floor. Looking at their expression, my feet rolled back and again the wait continued. 

I uttered to myself in disappointment, “How long to wait again? …. No! ”. I was hungry like a wolf and every second waiting there seemed as if waiting for years. Well I am a man of patience but except for this lunchtime where every molecule in my drained body craves for food. For a change, I tried that stupid counting technique where you count numbers in some order and then reverse back the order only to control your temper. HO! It was a waste for a guy who was now turning into an egg headed monster.

Few more eager minutes passed as such and after that another sound of lift pinged my ears. Thankfully, I could find a comparatively less crowded lift welcoming me. Eureka! I got in. But once I stepped in, some more guys followed me and the few handful people got multiplied into a full-size crowd.  The view was presenting the memoir of mass exodus of Jews by the Nazis where people in colossal numbers were expelled and pushed into the train coaches like rats.

Now I was spaced in the front corner of the lift, near the lift controls, with a fat stinking guy almost glued to me and two more young ladies adjacent to me. Besides, the lift carried a grey haired man in front of me and few more people busy in their business.

It was all boring and dull…colorless.  No background music or no good faces to make it pleasant. All the way down, the grey haired man kept staring at my little worn-out shoes and the two ladies kept assaulting my ears with their pinkish chitchats. More annoyingly, the fat guy sticking to me was busy picking his big nose and playing with the dirty boogers round and round…YuK!!

And now while the lift started moving down and stopping at every level, I was tired and even more frustrated, the same way as the people inside the previous lift which I missed. Ah! Now I could actually realize the level of annoyance you feel while you are in a rush, your lift is booked and still people call the lift to move just one level up/down interrupting your left journey…Hehee.

Next time find me catching the stares and stretching my lazy bones.