I had a really harrowing experience Wednesday evening while going to Gurgaon from Noida in the evening. Used to a comfortable life and minimal travelling to and fro office , yesterday , I came to know and understand the agony and discomfort of people who travel a distance to reach their office especially people who travel from Gurgaon to Noida or vice versa. I believe myself and suggest everybody who cares / does not care to listen to me – Please stay in a locality that is NEAR to your workplace. It will not only save time , but will also keep your mind and body relaxed.
And so it happened that I was supposed to attend a day long training in my Noida office and in the evening I had to return back to Gurgaon. We started well in time at 6 PM by our office bus , but as we reached the Expressway , we could see that something was wrong . The entire view of the expressway was worth seeing , with cars all lined up till your eye could see. And from then and there , the agony began , our bus only inching forward.They say that when bad time comes , it comes with all fury . So, after sometime we reached the Moolchand flyover and as we were watching the traffic all gone Hayward and a long queue of vehicles all around , our bus suddenly stopped right there in the middle of the flyover!!! We were informed that the bus has broken down and there is no way it can move ahead. Soon , I found myself WALKING !! on the Moolchand flyover in the middle of inching and honking cars during Peak traffic hours. In weirdest of my dreams , I had never dreamt that…I don’t even know how much I walked with a heavy laptop bag. After sometime , we managed to get a cab in which I unfortunately got a seat in the back. It was hot , it was humid , the back seat’s windows could not be opened , probably there was no AC/ or was not switched on . I felt like I would die with suffocation or anoxia. I was getting dizzy as I was sitting at right angles to the direction in which the car was moving.( Not used to that either!! ) From here we had to goto Dhaula Kuan but we came to know that the traffic at Dhaula Kuan was on a standstill since the last 2 hours. Plan was changed..there was no way out .So, it was decided to reach the nearest Metro station .At least we would not find a traffic jam at Metro. So, we had to reach the newly opened Mehrauli metro which we reached after 1.5 hours of which every minute that I spent was an agony with a Capital ‘A’ , add to it the nonsense playing on FM . The moment , we reached the metro station , I jumped out of the car , and breathed a good volume of oxygen into my lungs. Finally , when I found myself alive and okay , we started from there . It was midnight by the time that I managed to reach home. I had never experienced such a thing in the 2 years that I have been staying in Delhi , leave 2 years, I had never experienced such a thing in my entire lifetime .
One thing that I learnt – stay as close as possible to your workplace , so that you don’t have to travel on roads where you can get stuck and secondly , I’ll think twice now ,before confirming to attend some training which requires me to travel 40-50 kms !!!
And … as I write this …water is again dripping from my AC!!! The stupid person who came to install the AC last year did not drill the wall for the outlet pipe. Now, the water drips from the AC inside the room right near me !!! And nobody should laugh , when I tell you that I have kept utencils of various shapes and sizes to collect the water that drips like a bucket , a mug , a tumbler , and a serving dish !!!! I have made so many phone calls to the AC wala bhaiya, to the Society’s Sharma bhaiya but nobody has come until now. Sometime back , I went to the society’s office and wrote a compalint in the register. But , of course ..everything will happen the Indian way…till then I’ll continue collecting water in buckets and utencils!!!!
