~ A Lonely Stranger ~

Passing through a nearby park, I could see a young lad, not more than 30 years of age sitting with his laptop and surfing through the net – Whilst into my brisk walk, passing by, I could see that the young soul was going through various job sites and was readily applying to many of the open positions as per his competency and acumen. But what caught my eye was an emptied beer CAN fix into his shoe depicting as if the Beer can had totally consumed the man from head to toe - this showed his mental state of mind as what I could decipher- he was totally consumed by the adrenaline rush of the beverage. Though in his senses, he was seemingly to be a restless occupant of the bench at a secluded corner of the park, overshadowed by a canopy of trees. 

The cool breeze was a perfect spot for him to juxtapose his binge with his drink and a cult environment fit for such enjoyment.The next round could not stop me to start an ad-hoc conversation with my unknown friend. Taking permission to be his buddy on the same bench as he was occupying, I started the conversation with ease.

We exchanged our names for comfortability and an ease of conversation. After exchanging pleasantries, we started to talk about life in general, followed by our backgrounds. Things turned unexpectedly when the conversation turned towards employment. The lad was in midst of a hiccup and quite reluctantly disclosed that he had lost his job in the recent Covid19 mayhem and has been on lookout of a job ever since.

Life for him had been easy since last decade as he was in a regular employment and getting a handsome salary in his account. This meant a sense of security for a bright future – the sudden downturn of events has broken that chain of monthly salary credits – to his amusement, his finances are fast depleting. One good point is that he has enough savings as of now to last for the entire years as he tells me, but the uncertainty of getting a full-time job haunts him in the night.

On further conversation, he tells me that he is unmarried and was planning for a life partner and in fact had met few of girls as well, but suddenly Covid happened and his plans of getting married has been now stalled for an in definitive time, though he still has marriage on his mind. Mayank stays with his parents in a rented accommodation and both of his parents were in government service – they are getting handsome salary and thus are well equipped financially – this is a composure he gets when he thinks of his parents.

I didn’t want to disturb him much and got up to say an encouraging goodbye and ‘All the Best’, thinking enormously about zillion such Mayank’s who have found themselves in this precarious position since the pandemic happened. Hope to see him again with life’s fervor and an enthusiastic pitch in times to come, till then Adieu Mayank!