Walking Sleepers
A man called Joju from Kerala came to the hypermarket one day among many new joinees. Unlike others, Joju didn’t talk much to others. He asked his supervisor to give him work that he could do inside the storeroom instead of coming to the sections and meeting customers. Many old employees liked his suggestion because they all did not want to stay inside the storeroom alone and do more work than others. And they felt bad when they couldn’t talk to their favorite colleagues while arranging, covering, and pricing items. So they happily let Joju go to the storeroom to arrange and cover the items inside.
From morning to night, Joju spent time inside the storeroom. After completing all the item pricing work, he waited for another stock of items. Jubair, a Pakistani salesman, told Bijay, “Hey, this guy broke the record of pricing items in our section. In these two years of working, I couldn’t even complete twenty-five boxes of items, but this guy already completed forty boxes.”
Nobody read what was inside his mind. Nobody could talk to him more than “How are you feeling today?”
Einstein’s “Do you have a girlfriend?” question trap, he closed in a single sentence always, like:
“I already have a problem. Do you want me to have more problems?”
“Is it really important information for your current life?”
“Maybe I had many. Maybe I don’t have one now. It is totally useless information for everyone.”
But one day, they met a guy from the other hypermarket, and that meeting completely changed their perceptions about Joju. This guy from another hypermarket was a friend of Joju; they met during the job interview. The hypermarket team selected both of them and took them to their head office. Before joining the next day, they both spent time together in the same room at the hypermarket accommodation centre. He said Joju was different there, unlike the story about him made by Einstein and friends.
The first truth about Joju was this: he was a young accountant who came to Dubai for a job. His known people had an accountant vacancy in their company. He started working with them. But unusually, they didn’t provide him with a visa. Instead, they asked him to renew his tourist visa, the one they asked him to take to come to Dubai. Joju renewed his visa as they requested—who would not follow the words of a person who gives you a job or a new life in a developed foreign country? But it continued many times, lasting longer than a year. And they paid. As usual, after the 15th or 16th of every month. Joju didn’t get a weekly off many times.
Whenever he felt uncomfortable with his job and current life, he visualized his parents, who were struggling to live a normal life in their home country. The debts they took from other people for his studies and home survival. The upcoming marriage of his two sisters.
(In India, the bride’s family has to pay a good amount of money or assets to the groom’s family and the couple’s future life. So it is normalized that the parents of a girl child should save or borrow more money for the marriage, even if they don’t have enough. The men in society think of marriage as a business, so it is rare that men with money and good jobs usually go with a marriage that comes with less dowry or no dowry.)
Everything comes to Joju’s mind as clearly as possible, unlike before. So he pushed himself up every single morning to prepare for the job—the one that didn’t provide a proper visa, didn’t give payment on time, reduced paid leaves, and increased working hours without any explanation. He sent most of his monthly payment home and struggled for his own daily food the whole month.
One day, he came to the point where he couldn’t renew his tourist visa anymore due to the new government policy. Joju informed his management, but no one cared. They even advised him to go to his home country and come back again (which would take four times more money than a visa renewal and was equal to three times of the monthly payment they were giving). Joju slowly realized that he was cheated—by his own known people. Going back to Kerala again would make his family struggle even more and would destroy their foreign connection and mental defense mechanism with society.
Foreign connection mental defense mechanism is a new behavior in Kerala. Most youngsters currently want to go outside Kerala or India because people who have already immigrated to developed countries earn five times more than a decent salary job in Kerala. Also, the boom of social media technology gives them a picturesque promotion of developed countries—the devices and cameras they can purchase there, the ability to buy those devices, and some even starting a second source of income by promoting ideas using all those. Thus, youngsters living inside Kerala constantly face too much pressure and negativity around them. The comparison mentality of society and parents makes these youngsters disappointed unlike any past generation.
So, they borrow a huge amount to escape these pressures under the shadow of going to the foreign country. And the parents put their whole hope into the idea that their kid in a developed country will soon become financially independent and reach the status of other social media influencers. In this situation, coming back home with the message that he got cheated would destroy them mentally in front of the whole society—because, after all, this foreign country escape was a challenge to the societal pressure. Coming back is the biggest failure it seems—even though it actually isn’t—because life is meaningless, and actually, no one cares as much as you think. People tell you things about yourself because they are bored and don’t know what to do with their own lives—but in their inner minds, everyone is thinking about their own lives seriously.
During these thoughts and depression: Who the fuck are you to us? Why would we think about you, idiot?
But Joju didn’t have this clarity. He was trapped in the foreign connection mental defense mechanism. So, for the first time after a year, he searched for a new job. Without proper experience certificate in Dubai, no company gave him an accountant job. He ran everywhere in Dubai. He wanted a job immediately.
After three days of searching—a little relief after a long year—he came to know about this hypermarket interview and found a salesman job that provided a visa. A huge labor job for a cheap salary. Sometimes, something is better than nothing. Joju ate with relief and slept a little more peacefully that night.
The next day, the hypermarket team called him to the head office and gave him a room with a roommate. That’s how he got into this room now with that friend in the hypermarket.
They collected all the coins left in their bags. Then they went outside at night to drink tea. Joju spoke of master plans they could do in Dubai with a clear vision in his head. But his companion didn’t understand many things, as the hypermarket sales job was a big upgrade in his life—he was not thinking about anything else for at least two years now. Their needs created their own pressures and plans, but at the end of the day, both of them wanted tea and a talk together—it seemed like nature’s rhythm inside human hearts.
That guy didn’t see Joju the next day after the hypermarket team sent him to a different location. But he felt a little happiness when he met Einstein and friends, knowing that all of them were working in the same hypermarket.
So, they borrow a huge amount to escape these pressures under the shadow of going to the foreign country. And the parents put their whole hope into the idea that their kid in a developed country will soon become financially independent and reach the status of other social media influencers. In this situation, coming back home with the message that he got cheated would destroy them mentally in front of the whole society—because, after all, this foreign country escape was a challenge to the societal pressure. Coming back is the biggest failure it seems—even though it actually isn’t—because life is meaningless, and actually, no one cares as much as you think. People tell you things about yourself because they are bored and don’t know what to do with their own lives—but in their inner minds, everyone is thinking about their own lives seriously.
During these thoughts and depression: Who the fuck are you to us? Why would we think about you, idiot?
But Joju didn’t have this clarity. He was trapped in the foreign connection mental defense mechanism. So, for the first time after a year, he searched for a new job. Without proper experience certificate in Dubai, no company gave him an accountant job. He ran everywhere in Dubai. He wanted a job immediately.
After three days of searching—a little relief after a long year—he came to know about this hypermarket interview and found a salesman job that provided a visa. A huge labor job for a cheap salary. Sometimes, something is better than nothing. Joju ate with relief and slept a little more peacefully that night.
The next day, the hypermarket team called him to the head office and gave him a room with a roommate. That’s how he got into this room now with that friend in the hypermarket.
They collected all the coins left in their bags. Then they went outside at night to drink tea. Joju spoke of master plans they could do in Dubai with a clear vision in his head. But his companion didn’t understand many things, as the hypermarket sales job was a big upgrade in his life—he was not thinking about anything else for at least two years now. Their needs created their own pressures and plans, but at the end of the day, both of them wanted tea and a talk together—it seemed like nature’s rhythm inside human hearts.
That guy didn’t see Joju the next day after the hypermarket team sent him to a different location. But he felt a little happiness when he met Einstein and friends, knowing that all of them were working in the same hypermarket.
They collected all the coins left in their bags. Then they went outside at night to drink tea. Joju spoke of master plans they could do in Dubai with a clear vision in his head. But his companion didn’t understand many things, as the hypermarket sales job was a big upgrade in his life—he was not thinking about anything else for at least two years now. Their needs created their own pressures and plans, but at the end of the day, both of them wanted tea and a talk together—it seemed like nature’s rhythm inside human hearts.
That guy didn’t see Joju the next day after the hypermarket team sent him to a different location. But he felt a little happiness when he met Einstein and friends, knowing that all of them were working in the same hypermarket.
At last, that guy told them another incident that made Einstein feel touched and even shed a small tear. When the vehicle from the room started toward a new location, Joju started crying silently at the back of the bus—alone—when they turned off all the lights while riding.
Einstein didn’t try to figure out whether Joju cried for finally getting a proper visa or for ending up in a job like this after completing his graduation and working hard for one year honestly. But Einstein cried with him. Actually, it was not only for Joju. Because Joju’s cry was real, and Joju was every newcomer and innocent immigrant in Dubai.
Days passed. They cared about Joju a little more. And he, too, started facing customers and left the back storeroom.
One day during work, Einstein saw Joju suddenly hiding behind a pillar. He didn’t understand what was happening, but he noticed Joju was carefully watching a girl walking inside the market area. He told Joju, “If you want, you can go to the backstore anywhere.” But Joju stayed there a little longer. And left.
Actually, He had suddenly seen his old classmate—or college bully—in the hypermarket. And too many thoughts were running through his head. The college bully who had already come to Dubai many years ago when joju went for higher studies. She had an uncle in Dubai. On social media, she lived a rich life, filling her profile with photographs of restaurants and malls. People in their home country were amazed by the aesthetics of the restaurants and malls. Whenever they saw the girl, they thought about the restaurants and malls. She gave them the idea that they, too, could show themselves as rich by taking photographs in restaurants and malls.
But after coming to Dubai, Joju understood—why his Dubai friends and other mates didn’t post a single photo from their flats or rooms.
Anyway, Joju felt a bit awkward about ending up in a place like a hypermarket, while his bully had already traveled many miles (at least she promoted herself like that on social media). And now, she was in front of him as a consumer, showing off. Joju was steaming an underwear display in the center of a crowded mall to make it look more attractive. The customers would buy it. But why would anyone want underwear to be attractive? Joju has never found an answer to this confusion till date.
So, he suddenly hid behind a pillar and told Bhim, who was standing nearby, about it. This was the moment Einstein came to him and asked whether he needed to go to the storeroom. But Joju developed some strength inside to face his old college bully. However, she never looked at him or showed any sign of recognition. That broke him even more. So, he took a short leave that day—just to avoid meeting his college classmate-turned-bully in his downfall.
That girl was actually a bully in Joju’s college. But Joju never found any logic in her humor whenever she teased him in front of her group of friends. Joju is the kind of guy who enjoys jokes, even if they’re about him. For example, the jokes people made about his bald head. One day, a Nepali girl asked him, “Where is your hair?”
He answered, “It’s in my room. I just forgot to take it while I was running for the office entry time.”
Another day, a security guard gave him beauty advice: “Hey bhaiya, tomorrow haircut karo, you will look disciplined.” (Hey brother, Cut your hair….)
Joju replied, “Yes, even I was thinking about that,” rubbing his already shaved head.
But his college bully’s jokes were nowhere near these dumb jokes. Joju actually had hair back then.
Whenever his college bully teased him, he kept silent and tried to figure out what was funny about it. Then he would reply with some general joke about her. And strangely, her own friends would laugh at it.
That night, Joju thought to himself in his room.
Some people are just unwanted presences in our past. They were there for a little too long due to circumstances. But they are gone now. Joju had already left them behind. He wanted a new life, with new people—people who wouldn’t judge him based on old perceptions but only on his present behavior. But unexpectedly, his college bully had entered his new life.
Joju himself felt that she was doing great, while he was in his downfall. And she used the chance to belittle him. This was not what he wanted. This was insulting.
That night, he found her phone number and texted her about his awkwardness, unwilling to let go of his superiority complex in front of a bully. She called him a clown and told him she was very happy to see him like this. Then she blocked him.
Another slap.
At least this one, I could have avoided, Joju regretted as he stared at the blocked screen from her side. His heart was broken into pieces.
He told himself, “I am literally a clown, just like she said.”
Then he slept.
And even sleep ignored him.
He told Bhim about it. “This is not the way anyone should respond to their college mates when they meet them in their downfall.”
Bhim calmed him down by making jokes about his college mate. He told Joju, “Your bully isn’t rich—why would a rich person come to buy discount shirts?”
He then added, “And she didn’t even buy anything yesterday. She just roamed around and took some pictures—only for showing off on social media.”
Then they laughed together.
“She came here five years ago. You are new here. Don’t compare yourself with anyone,” Bhim said, motivating Joju like a good friend.
To be continued…
Chapter 12: Dubai Iftar