The Routine Affair

A can of apple juice in one hand, Sid lay tired in his barcalounger, shuffling through the channels on the television. This was his regular affair — remote in one hand pointing at the TV set, not tuning to a single channel for more than 5 mins.

He was addicted to this affair of his with the television — he always wanted it on, but hated everything it played.

He was more attentive today, though, as he had received a call this afternoon from his service provider. Lady with a phoney, but a sweet voice had informed him that a new set of channels was added to his plan. “New things to hate”, he had surmised.

However, he was getting restless now. It was the same set of channels shuffling through the screen. Over-zealous soap actors and actresses living their second life. Uninterested news anchors making their guests fight. Movies that no one paid for while they stayed in theatres. Knowledge channels imparting the trivial, useless information to their scarce viewership.

And the kids channels — he loved them. “Only channels that didn’t treat their viewers as brainless farts”, he opined.

He had now lost the track of the time. It had gone dark around him. He did not know for how long had he been holding the empty juice can in his hand. He had shuffled through 419 channels but had failed to find that one channel which was new. He knew he had to get up and start cooking. He put on the channel 420 and saw static fill the TV screen.

He stared at it for some time — low humming sound echoed across his studio apartment. It felt hypnotic. And Sid did not like the effect it had on his mind. He rarely liked anything static in his life. He left his layback position and straightened up.

He pressed the remote to change the channel. It did not work. He pressed the mute button. It did not work. Frustrated, he tried to power off the television. It did not work.

“That is odd, batteries died pretty early this time.” He smacked the remote a couple of times at his hand. And he tried the routine again. Nothing worked.

“Sigh. I guess I have to leave the house now.”, thought Sid as he stood up to get ready for his rare visit outside.

He did not realise one thing, though.

His mind was no longer racing.

The hypnotic low hum was no longer audible.

TV screen was no longer filled with static.

It had a whitened face of a lady , sneering at his back.