The Pressure Cooker of Reality

He was 33 years and 3 months old. He was a decent son, a middling husband, an okayish brother, and a poor friend. He was a dutiful worker. He was committed, professional, sincere, dutiful, and subservient. He was rewarded for his labor. He was frustrated sometimes, just like everyone else. He was also insecure, just like everyone else.

Unlike everyone else though, he had some unique problems that people didn’t understand. Life was tough on him. Financial constraints, early disadvantages, and no networks meant that every achievement he ever achieved was a struggle. And struggles are meant to be remembered and memorized.

He shooed the irrelevant thoughts away and focused on his presentation via the Zoom call in his room. It was ridiculous that he had to work so hard on this and he was still going to be ignored for the next round of promotions. He was referring to his notes and making an important point to the participants of the call when the loud whistle of a pressure cooker literally penetrated the air around him.

Whistle

Incensed, he excused himself to the participants and muted his call. Got up from his chair in the other bedroom and stomped towards the kitchen. His wife was sitting on the couch, taking a break from her own chore list

“Why is that thing screaming? Don’t you know am on an important call?” he asked

Sensing the tone, she retorted “Everyone’s house has cookers dude, nothing can be done”

Frustrated, he walked to the kitchen and switched off the cooker and made his way back to his room, and slammed the door.

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He was 33 years and 5 months old. He was a decent son, a middling husband, an okayish brother, and a poor friend. He was a dutiful worker. He was committed, professional, sincere, dutiful, and subservient. He was rewarded for his labor. He was frustrated sometimes, just like everyone else. He was also insecure, just like everyone else.

Unlike everyone else though, He was now in a hospital room with a couple of tubes ungracefully aiding his bodily functions.

What people don’t tell you about hospital rooms and generally being indisposed is that one has a lot of time. Of course, your loved ones and friends are having the worst time of their lives while living through a pandemic. Of course one goes through mind-numbing pain and discomfort But he in his head had a lot of time to kill.

How much time can you kill worrying about the job, the salary, and the EMIs? Becomes like a mediocre serial killer movie after a point…” Tell us who the freaking killer is and get this shitshow over with”.

In a month or so that he was in the hospital, there was nothing much to focus on. TVs spouted either lockdown news (“Surprise, you get a lockdown”) or had Tamil TV serials running (Would rather take a reverse enema instead of watching those).

Talking to family members and friends was difficult because they automatically had that “Oh poor dear” look on whenever they entered, so any meaningful conversation was out the window.

During this trap of his own, something which he thought was impossible happened – he began to miss what was his normal shitty insecure life. He missed the “Hello sir, Do you want a personal loan? “ calls. He missed the unhappy next-door couple screaming at each other over something mundane. He missed passive-aggressive share autos on the city roads.

Above all of this, during his stay in the hospital, in the sun film-clad windows of the hospital room, there were very few things that differentiated day from night. He didn’t have access to his phone or the internet.

It would either be the over-perfumed nurse coming to check his IV line or his wife coming in the morning with breakfast or his brother coming to stay over in the night

Then he found a sign. The sound of pressure cookers. Going off more or less at the same time in the morning in the apartments surrounding the hospital. This sound was once a background noise in his life, not to be bothered about and a noise automatically filtered out by his brain

But he lay awake now-due to body pain, discomfort, and general existential delusion- and the first pressure cooker went off to his west. Sounded shallow and short. Must be Idli. Before he knew it, he was surrounded by a symphony. He tried to track it, day on day. Assigning imaginary cookers to imaginary households.

• A WFH couple trying to get cooking out of the way early in the day so that they can focus on the work. Whistle

• A retired couple making early morning breakfast so that they can visit their relatives in the other part of the city after the recently announced lockdown relaxations. Whistle.

• A Maid making breakfast, while on tik tok, for her wealthy bosses who were still asleep- as they were on reels till late night . Whistle

• A couple of college girls deciding to not eat outside and making food on their own and video calling their mom on how to keep rice. Whistle

• A bored housewife making lunch for her noisy kids while fantasizing about her college crush (which she stalked last night on Insta) and brought out of her reverie. Whistle

“Why are you smiling?” His wife asked as she entered the hospital room

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He was 33 months and 9 months old. He was a decent son, a middling husband, an okayish brother, and a poor friend. He liked clouds. He knew his worth and that wasn’t what was in his bank account. He also knew who was going to come to his aid when push comes to shove. He was frustrated sometimes, just like everyone else. He was also insecure, just like everyone else.

Like everyone else though he heard a whistle from a cooker in the distance and then a whistle from a cooker from his house. Whistle. Whistle

He got up from his room and went to the hall to find his wife in the middle of her work.

“That day you asked me why I was smiling?” he asked

“What?” she said

“That day when you entered, I was smiling and you asked why and I didn’t answer, “ he asked

“And?” she waited

“Of all the imaginary situations I made up around cookers and whistles, I left out “Middle age man getting mad at wife for putting food on the table by making cooker do its job, to impress boxes on a computer screen. Whistle” He said

He extended his hand in an invite to dance. She accepted while saying “But there’s no music”

Whistle

“Oh but there is,” He said

Whistle

“Thought you were on a office call” She said

“Everyone’s house has cookers dude, nothing can be done,” he said

Whistle