Night shift teaches you strange things. At 3am the machines hum and you start quietly talking to yourself about every road you didn't take. Then the whistle blows, and you go back to being useful.

I wanted to be a mechanical engineer. The money ran out after my father fell ill, so I took the factory job 'just for one year.' That was 1998. Life doesn't always ask what you wanted — but my boy is in college now, so maybe it wasn't a total loss.

My whole shift quietly schedules its tea breaks around the match. The supervisor pretends not to notice, mainly because he's watching it on his own phone in the office. Cricket is the one thing that makes all of us equal for a few overs.

Everyone talks about work-life balance like it's a choice you simply make. Brother, when you're pulling a double shift so the EMI clears on time, 'balance' is a word for people who get to sleep at night.

Twenty-two years on the same factory floor, and this year's increment was less than what my son spends on a single online food order. I never say it at home. But I'm saying it here.