Phoning Home
Phoning home with the last few light rays of the day 💰
The Migrant lives a curious life.
Invaluable yet tolerated in his adopted state;
Adrift yet supporting his home.
Every day is a 12 hour grind at the Maruti Suzuki workshop, amidst clanging and shouting and heat.
Heat — not unlike the sun that beat and kept his back down, in the family field in Thenkasi. Not his family’s, not anymore. Perhaps his grandfather’s family, not even his father. For wasn’t it Appa who had taught him how to use a spanner set and Allen key in his free time? He’d loved those huge, roaring black Premier Padminis that came to the workshop sometimes. Dreamt of being inside one. Selvam had too; of course, he ended up becoming a driver, that’s a different story. He had wanted to own one, not drive. Feel the adoring gaze from the children and street-dust.
He did own a Vivo Y11; When his thoughts turned to how much out of 1 GB he’d have left by evening, the oil stains on the warehouse floor looked like his daughter’s face last May. He’d been proud to show her the phone. Touch Screen, he pointed. Held her finger and moved it across the dialpad, calling Selvam Mama. He left promising that she’d have a laptop after finishing class 12. She’d become an engineer of course; lots of jobs in Madras. Or maybe a nurse like his own sister. Very steady job, cleaner than his own.
A loud 3 member family walks into the dealership out in the front, just as he leaves at 5:37 PM.
Sir, these are our new models, the Nexa series. High end, perfect for a family like yours, please have a look at the features. That much mileage? Not bad. Acha! Why are we buying a Maruti again?! Thomas Uncle bought a Kia Seltos, it looks kidullan!
He walks past, a few hundred meters of blaring red and blue Infopark traffic rushing home to Netflix and Swiggy. On to the crackling green sign that said GENTS PG CALL 8765322132. Up the stairs of the peeling cream and red building. Clean shirt.
He heads back out, to this spot. I don’t know why he comes here. It’s presumptuous to think it’s not to enjoy the sunset like me. But just maybe, it’s because he thinks standing on this hillock with the city below him, will give him better signal. EC21004 (Signals and Systems) might give him a better idea of bandwidth and signal modulation; but his 30 years of working with his hands are better knowledge than ME21008 (Kinematics of Machines).
37 MB left — just enough to call home. Maybe to fit in one song and half an ad on JioSaavn before sleeping.