Am I up yet?

Beep…Beep…Beep….My eyes were frozen at the Couch as I let my brain roll back.

“Barath! Are you up? Its 4.00 am”, Appa started his day.

As I got up and thinking about walking, I also thought, what kind of a biological alarm this man should have to get up like this every day and act with such high levels of energy. What motivates him is what I was thinking?
“Chemistry” he said….

“Isn’t that what you were supposed to work on today?” he asked.

“Not decided pa”, I murmured as I stepped in to my morning premises.

How in the world does he knows what am I going to study. Well, I guess chemistry is what I like the most, so I will go with it.

As I stepped out, thinking what is ahead of me that day, I heard him say “Coffee!”.

I have to give this to him, I have never had a better coffee than what he makes. No Starbucks! No Seattle’s best. Nothing whatsoever. May be its because it was what I was brought up with. It certainly does not taste or look like a traditional coffee, but it has the something of its own that none can come near to.

The next 120 mins, just breezed away with me talking aromatic and aliphatic hyrdocarbons and responding to the early birds chirping.

"Take your shower and get ready! its time", he said.

In few minutes,

"Bring in your plate, guess Amma has some curd rice ready for you", he said.

By then I was uniformed getting set to grab the day by its horns.

"If I see a bit of lunch back in the box you know what would happen. And Do not dare to throw it on your way here", he sure can get loud.

"Coffee?” he asked as I entered back, after a proclaimed long day at work…. come on it was 3 pm.

"Yeah, of course! I thought you will have it already", I hated waiting.

"No, I was bored to do it all alone, I thought you will come back and we shall have the coffee together", he was genuinely bored.

After all, he was so lucky that his workplace was home, as he had to manage the entire South Indian Market via phone and other modes of communication. Man! He was and is lucky. But he also had no colleagues working at his workplace! Poor guy gets to meet them once in a while during his bi/annual meetings! Nevertheless he was bored.

"Its 4.30, let me make some curd rice for you before you go to the tuition at 5.00" he was just informing and not proposing, while I was wondering, why my life is filled with only curd rice, which is what I had for lunch as well...in any case I had better things to think about. Tuition girls and chemistry...!

"Hey...Barath is here. You will have to make him some dosas now" he was telling my mom while watching his 9.00 pm news.

Dosa? sounds nice.... and the intensity of that... of course could not even come closer to its taste. May be its because of my curd rice exposure all day, Dosa, chutney (molagai) powder and Sambar was terrific! Dinner is probably the heaviest meal of the day for me.. I am always stuffed with a full course meal.

"Dei, its time for your Badam milk!” …..He did not quit.

Is there any difference between offering and ordering in this world?

At the end of the day, I was just tired to hear anything related to food. As a matter of fact all day I was hearing only one thing...its something that’s related to food.... Whatever! Go ahead and drink...you have an hour of Math ahead of you at 10.15 pm I told to myself…

“Barath! Are you up? Its 4.00 am”, I heard him say again.

Beep…beep…beep. The microwave reminded me about my Quaker oats.

1995! sure does feel like a long time ago. Lots of things have changed. I learnt to interact with and through machines, learnt to live without constant intake…and lots more.

Father! …Sure! He was annoying sometimes with too much caring…! At the end of time, I guess he really don’t care….may be he knew that there will be days, when he had to give up his son to machines…..

Most of the times we talk about time flying and things changing so fast…. but there are only some times we wish for it to be frozen…. and it almost never happens when you are on it! Memory is something I bow down to! …I think I should remember his birthday tomorrow and wish him! I will call him on his cell phone and wish him is what I promised to myself...After all, I have learnt to survive through machines. When would I learn to live through it? Is a question that will never be answered?

“Its 7:30 am, and I am ready for breakfast” I told to myself. …But am I up yet? I questioned.