I take my eyes off the ceiling. And try to focus on animate objects around me. People. They are of all hues. But the business types dominate. Suited. Booted. Laptop. Mobile phone. Attache cases.

The distance in Milli-inches between one person and the other is ZERO ! But perhaps the real distance between them covers the vast expanse of the seas. I look beside me. A salt and pepper gentleman staring into nothingness. What perhaps is he thinking ? It would stay within him.

10 minutes later in a flurry of activity, passengers rush to the entrance. To board the plane. First. Even as i wonder where all the manners, like saying ‘excuse-me’ and ‘sorry’ have gone, i realise that the word ‘queue’ is non-existent in many a vocabulary. Perhaps forgotten after the MBA entrance exam. Perhaps running a different race now.

20 minutes later my elbow and another, try to jostle for space on the common elbow rail. The Economic Times in his hand reaches till my chest as i struggle for some space. Corporate career wars are all about running & jostling for elbow space right ?

“Purolite slaps corp spy suit on Thermax“ screams the front page headline. The gist of the case was this. Some folks who worked for Purolite walked away and joined Thermax. Purolite says they walked away with “..pages of recipes and financial information pertaining to manufacturing…”

Now here is the response from the VP – legal, Thermax which i find intriguing. “what he took with him, the data he downloaded was his own creation, which he has admitted”. That is not on. Or is it ? He is guilty. Isn’t he? To me, when you work for the company, the work that you do belongs to the company. Elbow space.

150 odd minutes later, the plane comes to a halt. And the everybody is up. Running to catch the first shuttle. To first catch hold of the bags. To get some advantage or the the other. Some advantage. Over the other. Perhaps. I am feeling lonely.

The bags seem to take forever to arrive. And everybody waits. All the jostlers are still working on trying to get to be first to pick up their bags. But what order the bags arrive is not in their hands !

Life afterall, is not about momentary elbow spaces. Its about utilising other spaces in heart, mind and soul.

Todays music is by Agnee. Its called Sadho Re. The lost and found feeling that i felt while writing this portion of the journal set the context