It is surprising how just a small area of 5x5 sq feet binds one human to stare at a 14” monitor and run his/her fingers over the keyboard to deliver few thousand lines of code and countless number of emails for over a period of time. And before even one realizes the span of time spent on this, one has grandchildren playing at home.
No marks for guessing the profession this blog would refer to. Let’s refer to our protagonist (a.k.a ‘sufferer’) as Theo.
Theo is on cloud nine when he gets a dedicated 5x5 sq feet of area designated as his ‘cubicle’, unaware of its analogy to a caged bird. He is on cloud ten (if there is any) when he receives the sophisticated equipment (lets christen it ‘dumbo’) that would help him connect to the vast pool of information into which he could dive, swim, drink and eat. All this is done with ignorance to the fact that this very object shall possess his life until his judgment day (am being careful not to use the‘d’ word here).
Very soon, Theo gets to share his room with a girl (its up to the reader’s freedom of thought to decide upon the relationship) and it all seemed rosy to start with. As days pass on, Theo cultivates an unusual inkling to stay put at office and enjoy his 5x5 space than the 1200 sq feet lavish apartment of his where someone awaits his arrival. The exciting thought of communicating with someone across countries and timezones distances our friend from his partner. Soon, this behaviour turned into a habit and flared into an obsession.
Such is his obsession that Theo now prefers his dumbo to his partner on his bed. Fortunately or unfortunately, the machine that seems to be a doorstep into a virtual world of reality cannot breed or reproduce (no, this not turning vulgar). Otherwise imagine the possibility of few lil dumbos buzzing around at home calling Theo ‘papa’ in its machinical (I coined it again…hehe) noise.
Days pass and months pass into years, Theo now has to grudgingly leave home everyday not coz he is frustrated with the dumbo but his ill-health needs some repair and home is where it could happen. He has no one but a doctor who visits him daily for his partner had left him (again left to reader’s imagination on her destiny).
The day is not far off when Theo will stop working on the dumbo and has to rest in peace within another cubicle but this time it would be 6x3 sq feet and not his favourite 5x5, where he has ‘lived’ most of his life as compared to his home or his mother’s womb.
It is enthralling to understand how this small piece of space binds a human mind (not to mention the body) and disconnects his relation with the ‘real’ world.
I am quite sure Theo will feel unhappy about the size of the earth where his body would lie for it cannot accommodate his dumbo.
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