Two Gentle Taps
(A short story I wrote for a contest in 2007. Didn't win though.The Challenge was keeping it below 600 words or so.) The alarm crowed. A lusty king of the farmyard cock-a-doodle-do. He shut the mobile up. One hour and five minutes was all he had before his day began. He would steal five minutes from that. Look the other way, he told that frowning creature in his soul. I do it all the time. A little corruption. A little bribery. I negotiate with the world 24 /7. So why not an extra 5 minutes of sleep? he told himself and buried his head under the pillow. And so began another day in the life of an Indian. When Vijay finally woke up it was well past eight. “Oh, God,” he exclaimed panic-stricken. “What have I done?” This time round he was definitely less philosophical about life and the daily issues that came with it. Almost an hour later, Vijay was scrambling across the street frantically, struggling to reach his office on time. He took a Churchgate-bound train and suffe...