[spider-ndwalz]

The clock strikes a quarter to two in the morning and the alarm clock goes off buzzing loudly in the one bedroom apartment. Karanja wakes up frantically and within his state of confusion, picks up the alarm clock , and throws it hard across the room for the umpteenth time for the past six months . Funny how this alarm clock still functions effectively after all this time. Groping in the darkness, he tries to find his way to the bathroom. He trips over an empty pizza box that is lying recklessly on his apartment floor, curses at it, and then proceeds to take a quick but painfully cold shower. He curses repeatedly at TXU for cutting his electricity with every drop of freezing water that flows through his back.
His boss will kill him if he comes late to work again today. He curses again. So many thoughts cross his mind everyday at this particular time of day. The rent is due in two days and so is his telephone bill. He promised to send some money home for his brother’s school fees, and he has no dime in the bank. Rather his account is a negative value- which in other words means that he is a reversely wealthy man. ‘Heck, those overdrafts!’. Another curse.The INS too is after his ass , but for whatever reason he doesn’t comprehend. He smiles to himself as though he was a man gone mad. ‘ Forget the freaking INS’, he says quietly to himself. ‘ Let themCatch me if they can’, he reassures himself. Besides, he has been running from them for a whole good three years now without being busted. He is most certainly doing well in this ‘ cat and mouse game’ and proving the INS to be the proverbial ass in the whole matter. Its probably his most valuable talent, this hide and seek game. Someone once said, ‘More money, more problems’. Funny that in this case it should be re-phrased to ‘ No money, excess problems’. ‘Man was born to suffer’ is Karanja’s philosophy. ‘ Who said life is easy?’ is another of philosophy that he has learned to embrace.
Sounds familiar? Maybe..maybe not- depends – but then again, in times of trouble like these- I guess only one thing remains- lay your pride, and get down on you knees in prayer.