Clueless

It was a day like any other. And as usual we were running late. After finishing the articles a few hours behind dead line, we had to leave the office on yet another assignment. But when we stepped in to the road, we found that it was almost uncannily deserted.

There were no vehicles and no pedestrians in sight. But we didn't think much of it. To be frank it never crossed our minds. We were too preoccupied with our respective phone conversations. Anuki was talking with the person we were supposed to meet and I was also clueless as to what was going on.

We heard a rumble in the distance and saw a few people running past us for cover, from what we still didn't know. But me and my faithful companion stood stock still. We didn't see any immediate danger for us to run for our lives. Finally the distance rumble became clearer.

It was a group of people shouting or protesting, but they were still no where in sight. However the road started to get foggy all of a sudden. My nose started to burn and Anuki suddenly cut her phone conversation short and started to complain about the same thing.

The next moment my eyes started to get itchy and well up with tears. At that very moment some one in the Lake House Editorial entrance shouted 'Tear gas, come inside, what the hell are you doing there.' We both looked around in shock to realize we were the only ones standing on the side walk.

I guess it took a few more moments for the phrase 'tear gas' to sink in, then we both scurried our way to the editorial entrance, without stopping there, straight up the stairs and on to the second floor, in one breath.

Our faces were itching and our eyes were filled with tears, while we were on our way to the department, we over heard people at the entrance of the editorial scolding us for being so careless. Well, it wasn't exactly a scolding, it was definitely out of concern. We grabbed someone's water bottle which was lying on a table and washed our faces.

What ever the experiences we have had, for some reason we always did find something funny to laugh at, to forget the pain and dangers we have faced.

I remember that Samadhi was on a call with an artists, and I was teasing her that she was not walking in a garden to pluck so many coloured flowers. (Though in reality, she was discussing the 'Observer 24x7 for youth by youth' event schedule).

I guess its the reason both our mothers use to call at the same time knowing how careless we could be when it came to our lives. (Especially while we were in Trincomalee) the only thing that we prayed for was that we would loose signal.

And at those times we were so overjoyed but, then again at a corner of our minds, did not want to worry them too much. As soon as a signal bar appeared we made sure to call them. From then the mobiles started beeping every quarter hour.

Well at the end of the day I guess our parents know how much we enjoy this profession and that it has become our life, so likewise parents life is the children and we sure did learn the lesson to be more focused instead of being totally clueless.