A Techie's Day on Road
Place: Sector 23, Gurgaon
6.30 am: My alarm bell rang. I dismissed it.
7.15 am: I finally got up as rays of sun started entering my bedroom.
7.45 am: Seating comfortably on sofa listening devotional song on 'Sanskar' channel with tea, biscuits and 'The Hindu' newspaper.
8.40 am: Started doing exercise after taking five minutes nap. Five minutes nap is a real power booster.
9.15 am: Took bath, performed puja and got dressed up for the office.
9.20 am: My cook started making breakfast. Hot ‘Potato stuffed Parantha' with curd and mango pickle sent by mom was ready. Yesterday it was 'poha'.
9.30 am: Cleaned the Scooty and started the engine.
9.35 am: Got stuck in traffic jam as a bull came in the middle of road. I was maneuvering my scooty carefully through the minimum small gaps of traffic. But the reckless auto stopped my way. After 10 minutes, first traffic jam of the morning was cleared.
9.45 am: Saw the time. Was getting late for office. Gave pace to my scooty but got bumped up by 2-3 deep potholes, present in the middle of the road for months. Cleared half the way to office before stuck in another jam at the cross road. No one was ready to wait for others to pass. But due to some invisible miracle, traffic got cleared in another ten minutes. Second traffic jam of the morning was cleared. Indian roads are altogether a different and difficult arena. Everyone in rush. Someone will give left indicator and may not turn left. Someone might not give right indicator and may turn right. But someone might give left indicator and really turn left. You have to be sheer and pure Indian to drive safely in India. If your vehicle does not get a scratch after one month of purchase, consider yourself as god’s own child. A high level of concentration is needed to drive on Indian roads. I am not surprised why Yoga and meditation started in India. All motorists look like moving ‘Yogi’ to me. You may be the best motorist from some other country but when you drive in India, you may have to doubt your driving license. You don’t meet with accident because of your mistakes but someone else mistakes, rush, whims or rigidness. Sometimes it is felt that motors are not propelled by engine but by horn. Even One Way roads can become your way , my way or anyone's way. It is icing on the glory of Indian roads. Indian roads are classic example of ‘Inclusive Sustenance’. Nitish Kumar would be the happiest person to read these lines. Here not only cycle, rickshaws, trucks, tractors run along with Honda, BMW but also with goats, dogs, bulls or cows.
10:15 am: Finally reached office. I got some water and then reached my desk. No morning greetings. All were Indian colleagues. Everyone seemed to be busy like bee. I felt embarrassed for reaching late.
10:16 am: Supervisor arrived with his queries on my work status. Not much pleased with my pace of work, loaded me with another bundle of work.
10:30 am: After checking mails and chalking out plan for today's work, went to fetch half cup of free coffee from vending machine on my floor. The quality of tea was pathetic, so I had to take coffee in compulsion.
1:00 pm: My friend asked me for lunch. I requested him to wait for ten minutes. The wait prolonged for one hour as some urgent work arrived. Mind it, all works are urgent here. But the friend was still waiting.
2.00 pm: We, group of four people reached canteen. Had hot and sumptuous lunch that included rice, hot roti not frozen one, 2 vegetables, lentils, salad and a piece of ‘gulabjamun’ (sweet) too. We went for ten minutes stroll and bought 2 ‘happy dent’ chewing gums, necessary to dispel the upcoming bout of sleep post heavy lunch.
2.45 pm: Back on my seat.
3.10 pm: Bout of sleep started to arrive. I started fighting the nap with chewing gums and some happy banter with like-minded colleagues.
5.10 pm: Tea break became necessity. Went with friends and had hot samosa, roll and tea.
5.40 pm: Back to desk. I came with ‘steel resolve’ to finish all the pending work in an hour.
6.00 pm: Half of colleagues started to leave office. First girls followed by boys. A thought came to my mind to reach office on time and leave on time from tomorrow onwards. A Wishful thinking.
7.15 pm: Almost all of the day's work was finished. Stretched my hands, shook my head. It was time to leave. Only 3-4 colleagues were there. But then my supervisor arrived. He asked me to prepare an excel sheet of status of all the modules of my project. He insisted on its urgency and the need to finish it by today itself. There was always urgency as if tomorrow would never come.
It accelerated the flow of blood to my head and increased my heart beat. I started preparing the sheet; calling team members on their mobile phone to know their work status and consolidating the details.
8.20 pm: Work was done finally. Supervisor had already gone. I took my scooty keys and started to leave.
8.30 pm: Got stuck in the long traffic jam. I was getting impatient with pollution, hunger and heat. No invisible miracle anywhere. But finally traffic was cleared. No policeperson came but some civilians had to come forward and clear the traffic.
9.30 pm: Finally reached home. Drop dead tired. I started sharing the day’s frustration with roommates. It was a strong tonic and mood booster. Got some smile on my face and relaxed.
10.00 pm: We started having dinner that included ‘kheer’ ( rice pudding with milk) along with our favorite show on television.
11.00 pm: Finally went to bed with the story book/novel.
11.45 pm: Lights off and good night
Next Day:
6.30 am: My alarm bell rang. I dismissed it.
7.25 am: I finally woke up as rays of sun started entering my bedroom.
7.30 am: No power. I had to wait for the power so that water gets warm in geyser.
7.50 am: Tea with biscuit with no ‘devotional songs’ as a neighbor had come to talk about his son’s future plan after his pre graduation.
The day started but it would be a different day, new challenges on road, new hiccups at work place, new dishes in lunch and dinner and a new twist in the life will be in the offing.
In US, your morning can be taken by your office but not your evening, for sure.
In India, your morning may or may not be yours but your evening can not be yours, for sure.
Two different countries can affect the same person in two different ways.
It is the truth of a techie.
