A Room With A View

The health club that i am a member of is situated on the first floor of a particular building on a rather busy road. It is actually a big hall with tinted glass windows on the side facing the road so as to accord a certain amount of privacy to the members who desperately sweat away their store of blubber on various machines. 

I particularly enjoy my 20 minute stint on the treadmill, contrary to the views of my fellow gym-mates many of who find it rather boring and uninspiring. But what makes it interesting for me is not just the exercise factor which i find particularly effective, but the fact that the treadmill is situated at the far end of the hall adjacent to those big glass windows overlooking the busy road which happens to be a sea of activity. 

One particular type of activity stands out from the others, highly intensified due to the location of a watering hole (a bar, if you please) right across the road, the entrance of which can be viewed perfectly from atop the treadmill. This is when i am convinced of the various stories which make the round about the Malayalee's insatiable tryst with liquor. 

What i understand from my voyeuristic activity is that this is a bar which is frequented by the 'downmarket' crowd. It starts as early as 7.AM when you can actually see a considerable queue of patient people waiting nearby for its doors to open. There are no seats or tables. People just walk in, give their order, and are served instantly. I understand so because often i see people walk in and out within a span of 5 minutes! Previously, there used to be a crude notice on the door of the bar emphasizing rates/glass written on it. But i don't see it these days. Perhaps someone objected to it, or a pauper of a drunk tore it off in anger... who knows!

Yesterday evening, i saw an old man in crutches (one of his legs were heavily bandaged from his knee down as though he had suffered a fracture) and a bandaged head hobble down the  bar and walk unsteadily down the road. A few minutes later, a young boy (can't be more than 18) with a red cap and a backpack made his way out of the bar and walked away nonchalantly. 

Though i don't really encourage liquor consumption, I don't have anything against people who enjoy their drop. But the problem starts when it transcends limits and reaches to such an extent where they lose all dignity and self control. Watching half naked men sprawled across the gutter in an inebriated condition certainly evokes a sort of pity not for them, but for their family members who perhaps might be anxiously waiting for their return back home... 

Well.. my 20 minutes have elapsed and i need to spend time on other fitness machines as well. So until next time, it is adieu to my picture window.