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
