Have I gone too Far...

As I stare out of the branded glass panels

From the cozy confines of my plush office

On the third floor of the city’s most luxurious address

On this beautiful sunny afternoon

I see a different world.

Young lovers lost in their own world,

Holding hands, laughing and whispering sweet nothings

Little kids, dragging their parents or being dragged by them

Crying or laughing, animated in their expressions

I see groups of young giggling girls

Carrying loads of shopping bags

Which I am sure would be heavier than their slender frames

Old wrinkled faces, walking with a stick

Yet wearing their best smiles

And I search myself in them.

I don’t belong to any of them

I am here, secured in the life I built for myself

Busy and rich, 'Successful' could be the adjective.

Was it all worth it, I ask myself

The parents I didn’t have the time to care for

The friends I never appreciated

The wife I lost to someone else

The child I never saw growing up

The hours I spent working on Christmas nights

Amongst deserted cubicles

The years of easy fun I spent in meetings and demos

I wonder, did I pay a price too high

To win this mindless race.

Have i gone too far to deserve a second chance

To see a new sunrise, even as I near sunset

To shatter these branded panels and breathe afresh

To pick up the precious moments I lost on my way.

- Rohini Karmakar, CSP Testing, Cognizant