An exercise in frugality

An exercise in frugality, that is the true nature of the studio apartment to which I have to be confined to whenever I return home from frazzled and spent from yet another tough day of office in the USA. It's got a carpeted floor like most other houses here, unfortunately it's already blotched with stains of an unidentifiable nature, the vestiges of its previous occupants. The TV in the corner of the room serves as the sideboard for all paraphernalia ranging from keys, defunct mobiles, change, ID cards and what not! It's ironical that in the land of the idiot box, the occupants of this one room apartment take the minimal interest in it and it serves the purpose of junk furniture. And not that it is defunct. It works too but the charms of passive entertainment are not attractive enough for people on their first fleeting visit to the USA, as the previous occupants of this room and now me are. There is no furniture apart from an easy chair and a sofa set so swamped with long forgotten clothes that it's quite hard to see them. There's a cupboard and an attic whose contents I cannot dare to describe. A little kitchen with the customary fridge and microwave whose use I hope to minimize and a tiny switch in the corner for a functional AC (thank goodness for that) complete the picture. An apology of a mattress where salvation is sought in deep slumber also dots the landscape and order will be the last word on your mind if you ever enter here. We eat off paper plates, we minimize any kind of activity that might lend this room a single element of permanence. One week from now, it'll be my room alone 'coz the other inmate whose lifeterm is served will be leaving for India. If there was ever a room that said "Only temporary" without the use of a board, this has got to be it.