Hike Indispensible
On a dark and foggy night, a small figure lay huddled on the railway
tracks leading to the Chennai station. At once I was held back to see
someone in that position during midnight with no one around. With curiosity
taking the front seat, I went near the body and tried to investigate it.
There was blood all over the body which was lying face down. It seemed that
a ruthless blow by the last train could have caused the end of this body
which seemed to be that of a guy of around my age. Amidst the gory blood
flow, I could see a folded white envelope which was fluttering in the
midnight wind. Carefully I took the blood stained envelope and was
surprised to see the phrase “appraisal letter” on it. With curiosity rising
every moment, I wasted no time in opening the envelope to see if I can find
some details about the dead guy. The tag around the body’s neck and the
jazzy appraisal cover gave me the hint that he might be a software
engineer.
I opened the envelope to find a shining paper on which the appraisal
details where typed in flying colors. Thunders broke into my ears and
lightening struck my heart when I saw the appraisal amount of the dead
guy!!!!! My God, it was not even, as much as the cost of the letter on
which the appraisal details were printed…. My heart poured out for the guy
and huge calls were heard inside my mind saying “no wonder, this guy died
such a miserable death”… As a fellow worker in the same industry, I thought
I should mourn for him for the sake of respect and stood there with a heavy
heart thinking of the shock that he would have experienced when his manager
had placed the appraisal letter in his hand. I am sure his heart would have
stopped and eyes would have gone blank for few seconds looking at the near
to nothing increment in his salary.
While I mourned for him, for a second my hands froze to see the employee’s
name in the appraisal letter…hey, what a strange co-incidence, this guy’s
name is same as mine, including the initials. This was interesting. With
some mental strength, I turned the body upside down and found myself
fainted for a second. The guy not only had my name, but also looked exactly
like me. Same looks, same built, same name…. it was me who was dead
there!!!!!!!! While I was lost in that shock, I felt someone patting on my
shoulders. My heart stopped completely, I could not breathe and sprung in
fear to see who was behind……… Splash!!! Went the glass of water on my
laptop screen as I came out of my wild dream to see my manager standing
behind my chair patting on my shoulder saying,
“Wake up man! Come to
meeting room number two. I have your appraisal letter ready”.
