Too Much, Too Early!
It has been long time since I have been on a night shift. Since yesterday I have become a subject of a pseudo-night-shift, or the so called early morning shift, starting at 3.30 am in the morning and ending at 12.30 in the noon.
I personally think that night shift is a taboo! It is an uncivilized shift which leaves you with no time for your own self; all that one can do is eat and sleep and work! Life becomes primitive that way, zero socializing, uhn. I, a self-proclaimed introvert, don’t socialize much otherwise as well.
The time that I am in now is a little deceptive, looks like an early morning shift, but it is quiet difficult to put your self up against sleep once you reach home in the after noon. And once you fall asleep it is equally difficult in the night to sleep in between 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. in the morning. This timing makes one an amalgamation of an early-bird and a late-bird.
But it was a different experience to be quasi-nocturnal. The emptiness of the otherwise chaotic streets of Chennai, grips you as you leave to work in your cab with a heavy head (heavy due to the lack of sleep!). Close to zero decibels in the roads are quiet an unlikely-metropolitan display. One can also espy that places in Chennai are not that far from each other, in the absence of an unruly traffic.
You find people sleeping in the pathways, a direct reflection of the poor social system pervading in our country. Uhnnn, I could only feel sympathetic at such a show. One can also notice night watchmen keeping a vigil, some of them actually snoozing away their work and some being fair. The relatively cleaner air, that whisks across your face as the cab races in top speed. And not to forget the droplets of car running around as a result of the increasing number of youth working in the night shifts, the city owes this to the effects of globalization.
Well it is just been a couple of days in this shift, I could notice that time runs away from 3.30 to 6.30 a.m.. Around six in the morning you notice the first light of the day slowly but steadily winning its war against the darkness. I am not so much of a morning person, but morning Chennai is beautiful I should confess. It is lesser chaos and lesser pollution, a different world from the usual or the normal (in the case of Chennai).
My work place is a quaint place; it appears both small and big at the same time. Early hours at desk just slips by stealthily, unnoticed. Around six to seven a.m. you get this striking hunger pounding your stomach, you can feel the gastric juices have a ball inside your tummy. An unexplainable hunger hits you like a giant wave. It enables me to run to the pantry for an early homemade-breakfast. (Courtesy: My mom who toils to make breakfast for me, that hour of the night!)
After the breakfast it is time for a steaming cup of tea or coffee dispensed from the Lavazza coffee machine, which actually is the star of the pantry area. A hot cup of coffee or tea acts like a good dose of some forbidden drugs which enlivens you during that time of the day, a must-have kind. The shots of tea or a coffee is best enjoyed with the panoramic view offered by the huge glass-window-wall in the pantry. It gives you a good 180° (or may be slightly less) of the suburban Chennai, in the direction Porur to Poonamallee, from the sixth floor of the tall structure that my workplace is.
You notice more greenery than one would expect to see in the heart of Chennai. Beautiful bunches of the palm of the coconut garnishes the landscape; it looks like a flower bouquet made of green flowers against the back drop of the morning sky cheerfully lit by a soothing sun. Wonderful view, I am sure Chennai would look manifolds beautiful if we had managed to keep some more greenery in place across the city.
After that break, the remaining time runs swiftly by, as well, in work. So when it half past noon, it is time to go to home, catch some good food and a more required rest for the day. To assimilate all the energy and will for another day of work from half past three a.m. to half past twelve in the noon. A grooving working experience it is. Nevertheless, life goes on!
I personally think that night shift is a taboo! It is an uncivilized shift which leaves you with no time for your own self; all that one can do is eat and sleep and work! Life becomes primitive that way, zero socializing, uhn. I, a self-proclaimed introvert, don’t socialize much otherwise as well.
The time that I am in now is a little deceptive, looks like an early morning shift, but it is quiet difficult to put your self up against sleep once you reach home in the after noon. And once you fall asleep it is equally difficult in the night to sleep in between 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. in the morning. This timing makes one an amalgamation of an early-bird and a late-bird.
But it was a different experience to be quasi-nocturnal. The emptiness of the otherwise chaotic streets of Chennai, grips you as you leave to work in your cab with a heavy head (heavy due to the lack of sleep!). Close to zero decibels in the roads are quiet an unlikely-metropolitan display. One can also espy that places in Chennai are not that far from each other, in the absence of an unruly traffic.
You find people sleeping in the pathways, a direct reflection of the poor social system pervading in our country. Uhnnn, I could only feel sympathetic at such a show. One can also notice night watchmen keeping a vigil, some of them actually snoozing away their work and some being fair. The relatively cleaner air, that whisks across your face as the cab races in top speed. And not to forget the droplets of car running around as a result of the increasing number of youth working in the night shifts, the city owes this to the effects of globalization.
Well it is just been a couple of days in this shift, I could notice that time runs away from 3.30 to 6.30 a.m.. Around six in the morning you notice the first light of the day slowly but steadily winning its war against the darkness. I am not so much of a morning person, but morning Chennai is beautiful I should confess. It is lesser chaos and lesser pollution, a different world from the usual or the normal (in the case of Chennai).
My work place is a quaint place; it appears both small and big at the same time. Early hours at desk just slips by stealthily, unnoticed. Around six to seven a.m. you get this striking hunger pounding your stomach, you can feel the gastric juices have a ball inside your tummy. An unexplainable hunger hits you like a giant wave. It enables me to run to the pantry for an early homemade-breakfast. (Courtesy: My mom who toils to make breakfast for me, that hour of the night!)
After the breakfast it is time for a steaming cup of tea or coffee dispensed from the Lavazza coffee machine, which actually is the star of the pantry area. A hot cup of coffee or tea acts like a good dose of some forbidden drugs which enlivens you during that time of the day, a must-have kind. The shots of tea or a coffee is best enjoyed with the panoramic view offered by the huge glass-window-wall in the pantry. It gives you a good 180° (or may be slightly less) of the suburban Chennai, in the direction Porur to Poonamallee, from the sixth floor of the tall structure that my workplace is.
You notice more greenery than one would expect to see in the heart of Chennai. Beautiful bunches of the palm of the coconut garnishes the landscape; it looks like a flower bouquet made of green flowers against the back drop of the morning sky cheerfully lit by a soothing sun. Wonderful view, I am sure Chennai would look manifolds beautiful if we had managed to keep some more greenery in place across the city.
After that break, the remaining time runs swiftly by, as well, in work. So when it half past noon, it is time to go to home, catch some good food and a more required rest for the day. To assimilate all the energy and will for another day of work from half past three a.m. to half past twelve in the noon. A grooving working experience it is. Nevertheless, life goes on!
Comments
Its been quite sometime now that u posted a blog.. would love to read more from u..