random acts of the mindless

(or there and back again)

So there I was minding my own business, writing blogs, doing work, generally getting along with my life trying not to bother anybody. Then it came, out of the blue, disguised as a harmless meeting request. The disguise completely beguiled me and soon I was sucked into a vortex of workload. When I opened my eyes, I was in a strange world with strange people and stranger customs. still whirling in the vortex of office work, I saw ugly deadlines whizzing past jeering at me, some even dropped ugly stinkers. From far off I heard directors and program managers shooting lofty rhetoric at me. Some, I managed to duck but most hit me right on the face. There were towering infernos of issues burning all around me. Every once in a while one would explode into red hot escalations. I was blindly grabbing at the nothingness around me willing to latch on to anything that would stop this wild spinning. Something hit me and I held on to it with all my remaining strength. The spinning stopped, but I was not in familiar environs. Onsite, I was told the place was and there be monsters here I was warned. for three months I wandered in that civilized wilderness. occasionally attacked by savage client meetings as I slaved in the documentation factories till the time came when I got my chance to escape due to a fortuitous expiry of an I-94. When I returned, I was but a haggard remains of my former self. People had looked around for me, waited for me and finally stopped visiting my blog residence. No one asked where I've been. Apparently it was nothing unusual, they told me horror stories of men and women going through worse predicament. “You don’t have shoes,” they said, “others didn't even have feet.” Things had changed, I was branded for life, treated differently. Had things really changed? of course they had, its only that they had changed now to look like the burning hell I just came from. I realized it was no freak incident, I had unwittingly but willfully walked through the portal. My systems calmed down. I felt a little cooler, a couple of friendly sign-offs helped make things pleasant. Just when I thought I'd survive, attrition reared its ugly head and I was buried beneath its stinking filth again. but I had had enough. I decided to take charge of the situation. I would fight. I’d turn back to human again. I would live.