Get up groaning and cursing even before the alarm has rung and think again for the umpteenth time what the hell am I doing in *** of all places and why I’ve to work to earn a living. These mental cogitations, general checking of mail and how much more of that really obscure film is still left to download help overcome the sleep in my eyes but at the end of it I realize it is already 8:15 and I’ve to be in the lab by at least 9:15. So I rush through my ablutions and get dressed by which time the toast is done. Hurriedly, spread some delicious nutella on it, eat, rush out and walk towards the bus/train station when along the way I see, first the train leave and then the bus too. Curse myself again for my ingrained laziness and wait for the next bus/train. By the time I catch the next one and make it to the lab (having just made my connection tram in between) it is 9:30. I try to sneak in hoping that my boss doesn’t see me coming late yet again.

Then I think about the experiments that need to be done. I also plan quite seriously if I can put away some stuff for the next day/week and then feeling immensely satisfied at having postponed everything I surf the net happily. But sometimes, I’ve put everything off for so long that it is imperative that I get them done. Then, if needed, I go to the animal facility and spend some quality time with my mice, either torturing them by punching holes in their ears or by squeezing blood from their tails or, the worst of the lot, anesthetize them, inject stuff into their veins and take out organs while they are still technically alive. In between it is time for lunch. So I go over to the student’s mess and treat myself to some very exciting *** (and the occasional International) cuisine and wonder how many kilos of fat I’ll put on with the amount of meat I seem to be ingesting. I can assure you that the irony of me working in the field of diabetes and obesity doesn’t escape me.

Time to go back to the lab again and waste more time on the altar of science in the hope of curing those members of humanity who cannot help gorging on big macs, chocolate sundaes and other assorted fat-laden delicacies of the culinary world. I sprinkle the time in between light work with liberal doses of mail-checking and the occasional blog-surfing and plot ways to make my highly imaginative, improbable and complex day-dreams more concrete.

Then depending on the day, it is either 17:30 or 19:30 by now and it is time to go back to my idiosyncratic duplex. I get home, jack in to the net again and happily start downloading my 9998th movie, watching with silent glee the number of gigs finished and the number of gigs still left, displayed as a nice bar, occasionally marveling at the way I seem to be finding solace only in either gadgets or in the worlds in my head. Reality, for me, has become like a TV show that one can glimpse as a blue haze though a neighbor’s window.

But time flies super fast when you are doing such important stuff as aimless link hopping, munching on unhealthy snacks and reading electronic graphic novels. So before I know it is 1:00 am and it is time to give in to the angel of sleep creeping in under my eyelids. Switch off the lights. Goodnight. Sweet dreams.