"Chhavi...come on!!! Its time..." The words seemed distant but they were coming from somewhere very close. I was trying hard to figure out that they were of whom but they seem to lose me and then suddenly....Trrrrriiiiinnnggg!!!!!! "Whoa!!!!! What had happened???" I startled. "Its the alarm, baby. Wake up. You have a class in 2 hours", my mum said, with a glee in her tone(She loves waking me up early, its like God has granted her only wish). "Nooo..I hate this." I murmered a few swear words(my morning started with that) and got off my bed relunctantly. It looked rainy but it was not pouring. Again a swear word came out. "Rainy day is supposed to be a holiday", came a wishful thinking, but it was not even raining. It reminded me of the time when as a kid, I used to go to school. On a rainy day my mum would say "Skip school today, roads would be clogged." But that was the only day when i wanted to go to school the most. Reason being. a) I loved getting drenched in rain b) Its the day when the strength of students in class is the minimum c) Come on...no studies and full on masti!!!
While doing my morning chores all this was running through my mind and i was wondering that how the thing i used to love has transformed into something i hate. May be it was part of growing up. A thing like waking up reminded me of my childhood memories and yeah! also about Ria. She was my best friend in class 5, (but then till we pass out from school we have a different best friend in each class), and suddenly a thought came "Where on earth is she these days???" I have lost touch with her ever since Shaila became my best friend in 6th standard. Now where the hell is Shaila? Okay, its done!!! When i come back from class, I am going to locate them through one of those networking sites, staring at which consumes at least half of my working time...Gosh! how many times in a day I maximize and minimize that screen for no reason at all, refreshing it, hoping that somebody scrapped me or took notice of the catchy and witty tagline that i just put on my status message, but to my distress there are none most of the time. People have better stuff to do and not everyone is as vella as I.
Anyways, where were we? Gosh!!! Thats human mind. You start thinking about one thing and it takes you to a new world altogether that could possibly be the last thing on your mind. Now would a sane person think about orkut at 6:30 am in morning??? Its 6:30 am, for Chrissake!!!!!!!
So i got ready for my class. And lo!!! I was ready before time. Yay!!! I thought, today i am gonna reach class on time. I have been going late since last few days and when i enter the class the teacher gives me kindda look that makes me feel that I am standing in a courtroom and have been accused of the murder of his/her spouse. Nevertheless, i took off from home after having my milk and neatly wiping the line of milk from my upper lip which sometime i forget and looks like a moustache. I had to change a bus after two stops from where i take the bus to my classroom. That stop comes in less than 5 minutes. As soon as i reached the bus stand, I got a bus immediately...hmmmm...Quite lucky haan! It started.
Before we reached the first stop the speed of bus slowed. I thought its cool, not a problem, I have time to spare. Some how the bus reached the first stand and it was 10 minutes already, I still calmed myself. "Chillax Chhavi, it rained heavily yesterday so there are some water loggings, its just that. Wont take much time." We were surrounded by a number of vehicles. All people had grim expression on their faces. Students needed to go to school, people needed to go to offices. But i was still chilled out and wondering why were they so hyper tempered about it. We crossed first stop. Now between my first stop and second stop a red light comes. As soon as we crossed the first one it was all fine but little did my ignorant mind know what was lying ahead. After crossing the first stop it seemed the bus would not move. Hell!!! I uttered another series of swear words to myself. (Please forgive me Jesus) and now i realised why people around me were having expressions like that. I was stuck in "A TRAFFIC JAM" in the middle of the road. I had heard a lot about these traffic jams of Delhi but never really came across one. Just hearing those horror stories would turn my soul uncomfortably. And somehow i felt that mine was into making. There were lines and lines of vehicles all around me, in front, at the back, at right and since we were the most left i could see that even the pedestrian way was not spared by the two wheelers. That red light was like a monster and bore the brunt of all the people there. It seemed as if it was the fault of that inanimate object that we all had to suffer and it should be crucified.
I could not get down to take any auto cause all the autos were stuck with us too and moreover i could not see one anywhere nearby.
I started planning that since I would not be able to catch the bus, I will take an auto and then remembered the several times I an auto and how those guys cheated me and took few bucks extra. So i thought i would not give him a penny more than what it actually takes. Ahhhh!!!!!!! What was I thinking(human mind!!!). First let me reach the point where I can haggle. I kept sitting, making all kinds of worried expressions I could make, muttering words, rolling my bus ticket in my hand to the point that the number in it started to erase, stared at my watch for the zillionth time. It was 7:40. Now i started to fear that even if i take auto will I be able to make it??? As soon as the bus moved, my facial expression would be like some one gave me oxygen when i was getting claustrophobic and when it would stop again I would have an expression as if that red light was mocking at me and I could do nothing but get frustrated and only spew invective at it. Somehow, we crossed that red light.
I reached my stop. It was 7:55 and the class would start at 8 am. Wow!!! Now I had to make decision that whether I still want to continue my journey after those nightmarish 40 minutes of my life or I would give up. But then I dont know which damn book I read which said something about giving up as the job of losers. Sometimes giving up is the best thing to do. Saves you lot of pain actually. This attitude only brought me to this end of the red light. So I thought of giving it a chance but God had different plans for me. All the strategies I had developed on how to haggle with the autowallah had come to nothing. I was ready to go at any cost. I kept waving at autos but it seemed as if they were the busiest personalities today and you should have taken an appointment before. Noone would stop. Just a couple of them stopped. I said "Bhaiya, CP??" and they ran away as if I was asking them to go to hell. Again a few swear words(this time in my mind). It looked, a damsel was in distress waiting for her knight to come in a horse wearing his shining armor. But the irony was this time noone came to the rescue of the damsel(Of course, the damsel is me...duh!!!) and that the knight was an auto wallah(bu hu hu hu), in place of horse it was an auto and the armor was replaced by his sweaty clothes.
I decided to return home. I had to cross the road to get on the other side. I decided to take the subway since crossing the road with vehicles coming and going has been my Achille's heel(otherwise toh i am perfect..hehehe). When I entered the subway it was water clogged!!!!By this time you would have guessed what my first reaction was...Bingo!!! I again muttered a few words not supposed to be said in public. I folded my jeans and dragged my self through that muddy water. I reached the stand somehow. and guess what i had to cover the same journey again that i had just gone through to get back to home. Can you imagine!!!!!! But the only difference was that i did not have to reach on time anywhere. Finally after a few utterances of my favourite words of the morning, I was back home.
