Standing there, tall and shiny in her pressed uniform and hat, she was causing quite a few heads to turn. She paid no attention to them and waited for her train. At exactly 1 minute past 9.00 AM, the train swept into the platform and stopped very close to where she was standing. The passenger doors opened and people began rushing out. Then people waiting on the platform rushed in. And then the driver's door opened too and the biggest guy in their division Big Mac stomped out carrying his lunch bag.
"All yours Poorni", he said waving as he walked past her. She liked Big Mac and put a high five on his hand before it dropped. "Thanks Mac, sleep well", she said.
She got into the driver’s cabin and locked it first. She put her bag in the driver's locker and sat down on the seat. The pressure sensor in the seat detected her and turned on the touch screen console in front of her. She entered her driver passcode and then the console blinked to reveal the driving controls. She ensured that all the doors were closed and started moving the speed controller fader on the screen to get the train moving. Thus began her work day. Poornima Manav was Level 2 Train Pilot for the city Metro. As the train picked up speed, Poornima's lips elongated into a beautiful smile. This smile appeared almost every day without fail. She loved driving trains. And it was way cooler than she had imagined when she was young girl.
The 8 hour driving shift with a 30 minute lunch break required her to stay alert all the time. Her years of experience in the job had made her highly skilled and had honed her senses that she could detect the tiniest of the anomalies in the sounds that reached her in the driver's cabin.
Poornima's felt her most confident self when inside the driver's cabin. She made decisions boldly, she was confident about her interpretations of the sounds and sights that greeted her while in control of the train. She felt like she was a completely different (if not, a better) person when she was inside the cabin. Her shift was about to close, so she used the driver change notification button on her console so that the next shift driver can be ready at her drop off station. She got off at the same station she had got on in the morning. Gomer Henderson was her handover driver. As she pulled in the station, hear eyes searched for the familiar figure of Gomer leaning against the wall.
She collected her things and with a longing sigh, gave one last look for the day at the console and left the cabin. "Hi Gomer", she said as she walked by. "Howdy", grunted Gomer. Gomer watched her walk by and disappear around the corner of the hallway. He then walked to the driver's cabin with a whistle.
With every step that Poorni took walking away from the train station, it felt to her like a gloom was enveloping her. Her shoes made a crunching sound every time it hit the ground. And she felt like every crunch was telling her something.
Crunch.
"You should work hard".
Crunch.
"Look at your colleagues, they are so much better at their job than you".
Crunch.
"Your high school friend Mary, is working as a Manager and has two kids, why aren't thinking about settling down yet".
Crunch.
"If you had studied harder in school, you might have become manager too".
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch...
Everything that she had heard growing up, came back to her as it had always done. Her smile had long vanished. She hung her head down and walked to her apartment. She knew the only way to shake these voices were to go running. Once she was in her apartment, before the day's fatigue overtook her, she got in to her running clothes and literally ran out of her apartment. The park where she usually ran was nearby and she forcefully filled her head with a single thought. "Run Poorni, run Poorni, run Poorni....". So said this to her so much so that she was running the moment her foot touched the park ground. She ran till she was drenched in sweat.
She came back home tired but in a better mood. She quickly fixed herself a meal and hit the bed. She could feel her eyes feeling heavy and slowly dropping down. She never used to have trouble sleeping up until that fateful day three months ago.