His fingers were gliding on the keyboard. His unblinking eyes stared intently at the monitor. He had been at it for more than three hours with no breaks. He was coding. He was in the zone. He was pulled out of his reverie by the sudden shaking of his chair. The computer screen was shaking too. Within seconds, the vibrations intensified significantly. Something fell on the floor in the kitchen, making a clanking sound. Earthquake, he realized.
He jumped out of his chair and cowered under the table. He had read somewhere that this was a good idea. After what seemed like an eternity, but was no more than half a minute in reality, the earthquake stopped.
After waiting a few minutes, he got out from under the table. The room was dark — the lights had gone out. His computer had also shut down. He flipped the light switch, but it did not work. There was no power. He walked out into the kitchen. A few utensils were lying on the floor. He then walked towards the living room balcony and peered outside through the curtains.
Outside , the sun was shining bright, in stark contrast to the darkness that prevailed inside the house. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. No signal. Maybe some cell phone towers are also busted in the earthquake, he thought.
He came back into the center of the living room and sat on the couch. He sat there for a half hour, waiting, but nothing happened. No lights. No signal in his cell phone. Tired of waiting, he got up and walked to the entrance of his house and hesitantly turned the knob to open the door. Sticking his neck out of the door, he looked into the passage. It was empty. He cautiously stepped out of the house and walked down the three flights of stairs to the ground floor.
On the way out of his building, he noticed that the chair that the security guard typically used was empty. There were hardly any vehicles in the ground floor parking area. It is a Tuesday, everyone must be at work, he thought.
~~~
He came out on to the street in front of his building. The street was completely deserted as well. Where is everyone, he wondered. He stood there in confusion for several minutes. Then, he saw a girl who just turned in his direction from a cross street. She was looking back at him as she walked in his direction. He felt both relief as well as nervousness at seeing a fellow human.
She walked up to him and cheerfully greeted him, “Hiiii!”
He looked down at her hands. She was carrying a small dog. He hesitantly said, “Hello.”
“Quite an earthquake!” she said scratching the head of her dog.
“Yeah. I live in this building,” he volunteered, pointing his thumb to the building behind him.
She smiled at him and said, “I live just a block away on that street,” pointing her finger in the direction from which she came.
“My dog was getting very restless today, so I took him out for a walk right in the middle of the afternoon,” she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead.
“I think they can predict earthquakes,” he stared at the dog and said. He had read somewhere that dogs can get restless hours before an earthquake.
“Interesting!”
“There is no electricity, I can’t work,” he said.
“What do you do?”
“I am a software engineer.”
“Oh. Then what are you doing home on a Tuesday?” She asked, shifting the weight of the dog from her right hand to her left hand.
“Well, I work from home,” he said shrugging his shoulders.
“Oh wow, that is so cool. Even I work from home. I am a painter,” she said with a smile. After a pause, she continued, “Don’t you have to work with other people? I mean, how does this work?”
“Well, my employers are in USA. I talk to my team there over Skype every evening and then again in the morning. They do not have an office in India. They hired me as a freelance contractor.”
“Must get boring sometimes, just being at home all day? Don’t you feel like a change of scenery? Don’t you feel like meeting people?” She wondered.
He was unsure how to answer this question, “Well, my parents live in Delhi. I Skype with them every weekend. I do not actually meet that many people otherwise.”
“Huh?” she exhaled incredulously.
“I love painting, but I need to get out of the house every day. I always find a reason. Shopping. Running. Meeting friends.”
“That is nice. I actually don’t mind staying at home that much.”
“But you have to get out. How do you shop? You look fit — you must be exercising.”
Actually, I order everything online. So, don’t go out for shopping that much. I have a elliptical machine and some weights at home. I use them once in a while.”
“Wowwww. I can’t believe this. Do you even need to step out of the house?” she said jokingly and patted on his shoulder balancing the dog with the other.
“I don’t actually,” he said with a straight face, “This is the first time I have stepped out of my house in six months.”
“Huh,” her smile was replaced with a nervous expression. Is he like a psycho or something, she wondered.
He sensed her awkwardness and tried to put her at ease, “See, I am a very shy person. Everything that I need easily gets done from home. That is the only reason I have not stepped out of the house.”
“So how does this work? I mean, don’t you get bored staying in the house all the time?”
“Well, this happened gradually. First, it was a few days at a stretch when I did not step out of the house. Then a week without stepping out. I slowly got used to this life. In fact, I prefer it.”
The girl was lost in her thoughts staring past him as she listened to his narrative.
“Do you live with family?” He asked pulling her out of her thoughts.
“Yes, my parents. I live with them. And we have our Moti. That is our happy little family,” she said with a smile.
He reminisced his childhood days when he lived with his parents in Delhi. It felt like a different lifetime. As she spoke, he checked her out. She is so pretty, he thought. He was actually enjoying this little encounter.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Kriti. And you?”
“Sukumar.”
She giggled on hearing his name and then immediately apologized. Damn, she is cute, is all he could think.
He wanted to continue talking to her. But he was not sure how. There was a moment of awkward silence. Both of them instinctively looked at their cell phones.
“The signal is back,” he observed.
She pointed at his building lift and said, “Power seems to be back up as well.”
They smiled at each other.
“Alright, I better get going, my parents must be wondering where I am. It was good to meet you Sukumar,” his name made her giggle once again.
“Kriti-” he hesitated, “It was great to meet you as well.” I would like to see her again, he thought.
“Well it better be. I am the first human you are seeing after six months mister,” she reminded him.
She turned and walked away as he stared at her back. After walking a few steps, she stopped. She turned back and said, “Sukumar, it was interesting to meet you. Let’s stay in touch.”
He smiled and said, “Yeah, that will be great indeed. What is your Skype ID?”