After 5 hours in a public Library...

You guys should be thinking that I must be crazy to spend a whole afternoon in a public library ... I was in such a situation that I had no other place to go to ... well it all started one morning when mum asked me about my future plans...by future plans she only means "marriage", She absolutely knows that this particular matter triggers a nuclear chain reaction in my brain which explodes through my mouth .... I started barking mindlessly and started arguing about why cant they give some time for this matter to settle down ... and as always the next stage of this event is to listen to my mother whining and quoting examples of guys of my age who have already "settled down" - "Hell with those bastards" is how the voice inside my head reacts to such statements. Well at this moment my blood was flooding to my head and my face should have been red because I could feel the heat coming off my face and I thought the best thing to do was leave the place without continuing the argument so I grabbed my lappy and stormed out without realizing that I had no place to go and that I had not had my breakfast ..I was hungry...

Five minutes later I was on my Bullet riding her barely at 20 Km/hr thinking of a calm place where I could sit down and cool off my head. thats when I passed an old pubic building the building that I had walk passed for more that 20 years now but never bothered to go inside ..It is the public library and I felt this could be the place that could put my mood back on track. I Parked my bike a couple of blocks away and as I started walking towards the library I was doubting my decision because most of our public buildings in our city are either over crowded and noisy or is deserted as it stinks. I took my first step inside the library and noticed the huge stack of books raising from the ground up to the ceiling tidily arranged in rows of steel shelves and old wooden chairs neatly arranged around a huge reading table, how typical of any government run establishment I thought to myself where you could find only old wooden chairs and squeaking almirah doors , towards my left was the librarian a middle aged lady who was arguing with a person over an expired due date. I was now waiting for my turn to talk to the now irate librarian .. "morning ma'am" is how I started and paused for a moment for a similar reaction or a smile from her ... she didn't even care to look up -again, how typical of a government employee I thought. I continued to ask her if I could use the library to sit and read... she said " you don't have to ask".. oh yeah it is public thanks for reminding said the voice inside my head... I proceeded to walk my way towards the large reading tables which could easily accommodate at least twenty people each.. but none were sitting at the table I intended to and there were close to ten people in all in the whole library .. hmmm what if this was a public cinema hall It would have been filled with people twice the full capacity I thought.. I sat on the chair and pushed my self closer to the table. now what?.. I wondered....

I pulled my lappy out of my bag , placed it on the table and sat there for a while just staring at the people around and everyone in there looked like they had all the time in the whole world to go through the daily newspapers spread in front of them and they were all decent looking old guys , I was pleased as it was quite but I would have been pleased and happy if there was a girl around which could have helped divert my mind from the argument I had earlier :) ..anyways as I pondered on such thoughts..a guy may be in his fifties sat next to me ..by that time I had my laptop lid opened... he immediately struck a conversation with me ..Ah "macintosh" he said .. I smiled and said "yes" .. being a proud owner of a mac. "Hi I am Krishna " he introduced himself and I followed introducing myself to him .. twenty minutes into the conversation I came to know quite a few astonishing facts about this person ..he was a scientist who worked on thermodynamics and had toured the world attending and giving lectures to the scientific community on thermodynamics and currently he was doing a research in IISC and as we got comfortable talking .. I asked him "do you come here often ?" "No, only the days when I have a bad mood" he replied with a smile. Now wait a minute isn't that why I m here too .. looks like all the great minds who have bad arguments at home this morning are about to gather here. Mr.Krishna left after flipping through few magazines and wished me luck before leaving ...The rest of the morning went uneventful with me staring at the dim monitor ..

After almost five hours of reading a boring technical document It was noon and I realized I had to go back home, apologize and most importantly had to eat a hearty meal ! I left the library with content that it served the purpose to many people.. old , young , happy and the unhappy and I was a bit proud about it ... not all things are the way we assume it to be.. May be I will visit the library the next time I have an argument with mom or may be with my wife !! :)

Good Day.