Wednesday (20-Aug) was as normally abnormal as it could be. The usual traffic jams, the groans and grunts of my fellow commuters and me snoozing en route to office....it felt like average mid-week. I reached office a few mins before I usually do and went in. Walking happily to my desk and whistling (to myself... I work in an automobile comp...No chance of whistling at a chick ;) ) I was summoned by my boss with a worried expression. That couldn't be too good I thought. He asked me how comfortable am I with travelling. Considering the vagabond life that I've led over the last few years working at customers' end, I couldn't help but smirk at him and said I can manage. That brought him a relief and he informed me about an high altitude trial planned at Manali and he would like me to go for it. Not too sure of what I was expected to do there, I was a lil confused but excited at the being at Manali....that too FOC! Then he dropped the bomb.. I was to leave that night. I did a quick recall of the number of clean underwear that I had and declared it was possible to leave the same night. But it would have to be at the cost of missing the induction program for the first batch of volunteers of the teach india campaign. I was soooo looking forward to it. But then I had to cancel and requested to participate directly. That was not possible. Now I have to wait till the next batch starts :( . I finished the things I had to do over the week and was geared up to go...but then plans change. The trip was rescheduled to later. When?...No idea.
The rest of Wednesday and the whole of Thursday flew by and Friday on morning the 'plan' was revealed and I had to leave that night. A colleague of mine (let's call him U...it was his project) and I were to go to Halol, check the instrumented car and make sure everything is alright, drive to Delhi where my boss would join and drive up to Manali. I asked for other details like the flight tickets, route, Hotel booking, logistics, gate pass for the equipment, etc etc etc. He coolly says..that's where you come in! What a nightmare! 8 Hrs for the flight and this is the plan? This was not even close to my style of working. My mom put her 2 cents in saying that's I'm a last min guy and this is perfect... just perfect. I had to defend my position saying I ALWAYS plan meticulously, but pack at the last minute and I've never been in trouble so far.
Anyway, thousands of phone calls and heated arguments with the travel desk and finance about travelling at short notice and consoling U that the situation is not all that bad and things can be managed easily, I had the situation under control. Everything was more or less in place. All we had to do was pick up some equipment from a local dealer go home and sleep. Luck was against us. It started raining heavily. Auto rickshaw guys started throwing tantrums about double fare and triple fare. We decided to board a local bus to the dealer. The bus got so jam packed on the way that we could not alight at the stop that we were supposed to and ended up getting down in the next. We had to walk back a few kms in the rain to the dealer. Thoroughly drenched, I must have looked like a fool to the dealer when I flashed my badge and asked for our test car. The 'just 5 mins' work at the dealer took over an hour and the time was 7.30 when we finished. It would normally take 2.5 Hrs for me to reach home and I was not even packed....Last min packing policy. I was exhausted and the more tiring thing was the though of waking up at 3 in the morning to catch my flight at 6. I got back to the main road to find a colossal traffic jam on either sides....very normal after the rain stops. There was no way I could have reached home before 11.30. There went my sleep. I decided to walk past the jam and then get into a bus. But then I could not possibly get in with the big bag of equipment on my back. I decided to gamble with my luck, take a longer but faster route and try to reach home early. Called a few friends to check the traffic situation in their areas and formulated a better route. I walked about 6 kms past the KR Puram Junction. Against my best judgement I had to walk over the flyover but to my surprise found a well maintained foot path! I had to walk in muck for most of the distance where a footpath was supposed to be present. And here I was walking on the footpath on a flyover. Bangalore's planning commission will never improve I guess. A dear friend of mine who stays in that area graciously picked me up and dropped me to the next bus stop. I couldn't thank her enough for the timely help.
I finally got home by 9.45 not before I had a fight with some auto driver and a bus conductor who claimed my pass to be invalid. It was a lousy end to a lousier day. I finished packing in about 15 mins wound up all my chores and was in bed by 11. I could sleep for 4 Hrs max!
But the surprising part about the entire day was that even though everything went against me, I was not pissed at any point of time. I actually went to sleep with a smile on my face. I had a sense of having accomplished something I guess.... and this was just a beginning of a big week ahead.
Cheers!
1 comments:
Good that you were able to achieve something somehow ...that too SHIT..some how in time :)
hope things changes....
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