I Forgot My Earphones At Home!

I put on my coat as I heard my van driver honking annoyingly from below. I always told him not to honk like that, even after I assured him via text message & a yell from the window that I was coming.

I rushed out of the door, yelling a goodbye to my mum, even though she couldn’t hear it in the comfort of her air conditioned room. I ran downstairs and saw my van standing about 10 feet away from me. I waited as it drove closer.

My van isn’t really a van by the way, it’s a very old and shabby hi-roof that very often breaks down while we are riding on our way. An uncomfortable vehicle that accommodates a maximum of six girls, with a seventh guy (if he ever came to college) that would sit on the passenger seat.

The driver opened the door from inside, because I never had enough morning energy to bust the door open, and he knew that by now. I threw my bag across the seat so I’d hop on more easily. I sat, and I pulled the door as it roared to a loud shut. The first thing I’d do when I got my butt rested on the seat was to greet everyone. My friends would both be in the back seat, so I turned awkwardly to shake their hands, simultaneously trying to fix the daaman of my shirt from underneath - asking them how they’ve been, which would be evident from their faces as they both are usually half asleep or just very tired when I stepped in the van. Just like I would be in about fifteen minutes.

After finally adjusting into a comfortable enough position, I pulled out my huge phone from my pocket, and then my earphones. Wait- where are my earphones? I checked again. I aggressively started to dig my coat pockets- this cannot be happening oh God. All that came out from my pockets was a snotless tissue paper and some change, no tangled wires of my earphones.

I missed you.

Dammit. I forgot to pick them up from my bed, I was in such a scramble thanks to my van. Why does he come so early anyway? He drops us off more than 45 minutes before class, when there’s no one but the security guards at the entrance.

Today just had to be the day I wasn’t feeling sleepy. Talk about major Monday blues.

To my amazing luck, I was also out of data and couldn’t check my social media on my phone. I kept it back inside my pocket, which felt emptier now. I turned around, in hopes of starting a little conversation with my van mates. I see one of my friends sleeping so calmly, while the other with her nose in her book, studying for some test. Before I could utter a word, I quietly turned my head back as if I saw nothing.

I let out the saddest sigh ever and started looking out the window. I won’t say that it was like a music video because no earphones, no music, no music video feels. Just staring out mindlessly trying not to creep out the people in the nearby cars feels. I felt the bumps and speed breakers more today than usual. Maybe because my mind wasn’t distracted as much as before?

...

I started thinking about the classes I had that day then. I suck at remembering my timetable. So it took me a while to process- oral surgery I think? Or maybe operative dentistry? Crap, I have both. Oh God please let me sleep here and not there in the lecture hall. I was already famous for my notorious sleeping in second year. I spent more than half of that year dozing off in classes. I was called out by my vice principal once too for sleeping, but that’s another interesting story.

A very bad picture of me sleeping shamelessly in the middle of a lecture.

I tried diverting my mind again, trying to get over the tragedy that happened. I looked out the window again and saw a blue Cultus- within was a very big, blue Spiderman bag that was so full it was square. Also next to that was a little human, just as sleepy as one would be at this time in the morning. He had light brown hair and I saw him yawning in the cutest way ever, I let out a reflex yawn then in the ugliest way ever. Just as I tried making some eye contact with the kid, our vehicles started moving.

I wondered then, there’s really not much difference between five year old kids and us twenty somethings. We both hate waking up in the morning and we hate going to school. Period.

We drove ahead more until we were in the Bahadurabad vicinity. I saw Tariq road at its emptiest, at its most peaceful. These roads were the clearest of our route, and in about twelve hours the same roads will be so jam packed, with multiple lines of motorbikes parked - taking half of the space on the road. I saw my favorite shoe shops all shut, there was something about these bazaars at this time that made me feel so tranquil, there was silence. A silence that seemed so good.

Soon enough we reached a red light on the signal and I looked around again. Within a few minutes, a little girl with very brown skin and tattered clothes knocked on the window. She was a beggar, about 10 years old. I looked at her, and she had the most beautiful hazel colored eyes. I composed myself again and started going through my pockets to look for the change. I had a lot of coins, enough for them to be about 20 or 30 PKR. I took them all out and gave them to the girl. “May Allah make you a successful doctor, baji.”  She muttered and went ahead. I smiled a very small one as the van started moving again. There was more than an hour to my class, yet my van sped as if it was in minutes.

We were near the KPK flyover very soon. From here onwards I would usually refrain from looking out my windows. This is because, yeah you guessed it right, the Taaru Maarus. The creepy old men that would stare at you until you feel naked even though you are fully clothed. So at this point I just looked forward, thinking about the day ahead.

Thinking about it from a different perspective now, my ride wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I actually saw what was around me. I wasn’t entangled by my own thoughts. I wasn't drowned in the deep lyrics that would make me reminisce old times. 

I saw what beauty there is around early in the morning. The rush of the morning traffic, the little kids in their cars with perfectly combed hair and matching lunch boxes, the office men and women all suited up, and then there were students like me- donned in their white coats waiting for their point buses to arrive. It felt good to not bob my head to the bass of my favorite songs, for once.