In the next 100 miles...

In the next 100m take left. Sharma ji drives straight. Google map re-routes itself and is ready for assistance within seconds. In the next 100m take the first left. Sharma ji drives straight. Google map re-routes itself. In the next 100m take left. Sharma ji drives straight. Google map re-routes itself. Sharma ji seems to be lost. At 49, being a senior sales manager and being the father of twin boys can ofcourse be a tough task at hand. But why is Sharma ji not taking the left turns? Does he know another route? Has he changed his mind and decided to cancel his meeting? Does he plan to meet someone else midway? Does he have a plan no one knows? Like a clandestine date? What is Sharma ji’s aversion is taking the left turn?

Those were the early days of Sharma ji’s professional life. He owned a bike then. He drove it to all parts of the city. On his way back he would drop his colleague home everyday. Yes, Sharma ji was once in love with a colleague. He was the most promising performer in the office. He would get incentives every quarter. And equally good and enterprising was his then girlfriend Tasleem. Both went to meetings together and were a great team, cracking every deal, meeting targets every quarter and contributing to the revenue in a huge way. Reminiscing that time, Sharma ji’s face was blushing like a teenager. Tasleem often wore a red top and looked stunning. In the next 100m take left. Sharma ji drives straight. Tasleem was slim, tall and fair. Tasleem was very courteous and kind in nature. She was fluent in Urdu as well and often obliged Sharma ji with her poetic orchestration. In the next 100m take the second left from the roundabout. Tasleem was everything Sharma ji ever wanted. She was the pride of every man. She was delicate and poise in personal interactions but very firm and adamant during meetings. She smelt beautiful. Her eyes were blue. In the next 100m take right. Sharma ji drives straight. Tasleem was as sweet and enduring as her name. Lying on her lap, Sharma ji would engulf her warmth every evening as she would narrate her childhood anecdotes. In the next 200m take right. Sharma ji drives straight.

Sharma ji had put the window shades down as he was enjoying the cool breeze just after a rain. It felt like one of those days when he would go on a long drive with Tasleem sitting next to him on his favourite bike. They didn’t talk. Their bodies were close. They felt each other’s touch and the weather became the melody of their melancholic non-secular love story. In the next 100m take right. Sharma ji drives straight. Sharma ji’s one leg is on the accelerator and the other on clutch and both hands tight on the steering. He did not want any disruptions in his posture. Tasleem was in his thoughts and the feeling was so profound that he could’nt help but get carried away. Sharma ji had spent a lot of weekends with her planning meetings for the next week. A lot of the Sundays were often spent working on presentations. They were a great team. She would know exactly when Sharma ji might falter and cover it up so seamlessly that the client would never get a hint. She was his strength. In the next 100m take left. Sharma ji drives straight. She was the ideal partner he wanted in his life. But Tasleem was Tasleem Ali and Sharma ji was Mukesh Sharma! The tale of two business partners being in love, striving to climb the ladder, sharing each other’s achievements and accomplishments was a tale forbidden by the society to come to fruition. In the next 100m take left. Sharma ji drives straight!

If Google map was a human he would have stopped re-routing itself everytime and asked Sharma ji why he was not accepting its assistance? If Google map was Tasleem it would have told Sharma ji to keep driving straight so that the journey never ended. Suddenly the phone rang. It was Mrs Sharma calling. Sharma ji ignored the call. He parked the car in the by lane and re- routed Google map. He has come to almost a different world by now. The place seemed extremely unfamiliar to him. In the next 100m take the first left from the roundabout. Sharma ji takes the first left. By now it had started raining again. Sharma ji lifts the window shades. In the next 100m take left. Sharma ji drives left.