The assigned task

There was a certain sense of uneasiness rising. He wondered if it is just hunger pangs or something even more trivial. Or is it something in the mind. Gautam was hardly sure. Dealing with it hence was much further down the line.  It had been four hours. He had forced himself to the bed, pretty sure that is the way he could get some sleep. Four hours had passed by. Four long hours... Probably it was just hunger. He hoped it was. Gautam walked to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator… and shut it. He opened it again, and this time picked up a bar of chocolate. ‘This should help pacify!’

As he nibbled at the bar he realized it was not hunger after all. Chocolate, though delicious, was not doing anything to take it away. He switched the TV on. No channel played anything sensible at the hour. Some movie channels played old Mithun Chakraborty films. ‘Aarrgh, this is impossible!” And yet one the television worked far better than he would have expected.

Gautam snapped out of his slumber. It was the crowing of a rooster. The morning rituals of the bird. 50 minutes had passed! Gautam was delighted he managed those minutes of sleep. He almost thanked the movie channels for their sleep-hour programming. But his delight was short lived. The reality struck. It was morning. In next couple of hours he would have to deliver… he felt he was responsible.

As time passed he felt as if life was seeping out of his. His shoulders refused to straighten up, drooping beyond recognition. Anxiety was building as he went through his morning rituals. The breakfast refused to get easy and he merely swallowed the sausages that he fried. As he did so, he made the mandatory morning phone call to his family, who stayed away in the silent hill station that Gautam had left behind. He scanned the newspapers, hoping he could just find the perfect idea. The last ditch effort. News helped at times. The paper prominently featured the amazing verdict on the hit and run case in which Salman Khan was involved. ‘Wish I could be as lucky!’

He knew it was time. There was nothing that he had come up with. It was 9am. It was time. Gautam fidgeted with him phone and logged into twitter. He had to do it now. The pressure was high. High as if his life depended on it. Well at least his reputation did. He felt like the entire world was peeping into his phone. He had to tweet the right thing… the pressure to come up with the perfect line, funny, smart, all packed in those 140 characters… Something that Gautam was so adapt at that he was more or less a ‘virtual’ celebrity with almost a lakh followers. His popularity on twitter had opened many a opportunity for him. At times his quotes even featured in stories on websites. And yet for three days at a stretch he had failed do come up with anything new. His post the day before managed only 5 RTs. Stakes were never so high.

He typed into his phone, and then deleted. Typed again. The cycle continued. Till he finally realized what he needed to do. A smile escaped his lips…