A Speculative take on Four O’clock
Unlike a lot of previous nights, I woke up at 04.00, rather than already being awake en route to pulling an overnight gig in my favourite place. Having been fortunate to live in few parts of the world now, I was wondering what would life be like at 4 O’clock in different parts of the world?
Without stating a lot of hard facts or having any concrete reasons to believe so, I think — 4 O’clock is a transition point during the 24 hour ritual that we go through 365 days a year.
The end
Its a time when the lively among us would be crawling back to their dens after a drink too many, some of them drinking to glory, others to their doom, the aggressive among us might have had a more involved night – having a pub fight or something like that, the strong among us might have protected a lot of lives this night, the normal among us might just be finishing up another long night’s study or work. And we would crawl into bed beside our loved ones or with just ourselves. That’s just the beginning of the end, however. We shall then start pondering and thinking about a gamut of other things. Reminiscing the fond moments of the day, the fond people in our lives and saying our last prayers to prevent the demons from devouring us. And finally, we sleep.
The Beginning
The vegetable vendors in different parts of India would be making their journeys to buy their vegetables for the day which the great Indian consumer would go to buy in the morning. The local trains of Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai have just started running and the vendors are just getting ready to sell steaming tea and breakfast. Office goers who have to commute 2+ hours daily might just be cursing their way out of the bed. Pilots and Air hostesses will just be getting ready for that early morning flight and so would be the passengers. Closer home, travellers would be waiting at the Jolimont centre in Canberra to take the early morning bus to Sydney.
In Transit
A lot of life would just be in transit at 04.00 AM – at the airports, bus and the train stations. More symbolically, life would be in transit in our minds when we are just plain awake, like myself. Its not a beginning or end for me now. Its just a state in between. And it is during this state of transit that life comes back to me. I am too busy to think when I start, and too tired to think when I end, but it is during this state of transition that I have the right amount of peace inside me and just that enough time before I need to wake up or sleep. I like this state. I like to think. I think its good to think. And, I just pulled a meta there!
Favourite Four O’clock Moment
Till a few years back, I used to regularly take the overnight bus service between two towns of West Bengal, India – Kolkata and Siliguri. They used to be beautiful moon-lit nights. They become doubly wonderful when I was travelling with my Alter ego of 10+ years now.
What’s yours?
Programming and writing about it. 