Time and traffic wait for no man

My clock read 8:30 PM. It was much more than the usual dose of crazy traffic on Whitefield road. It was almost an hour since I had left office ( in the bus ) and we were barely a kilometre away from the campus ! I could see the silhouette of the majestic KR Puram suspension bridge at a distance and it no longer looked charming ! It was a friday night and I was stuck in the worst traffic possible just near office ! I still had miles to go. And it was not just 8:30 PM on a friday evening, I was seeing the end of a very hectic week in office and I had just finished an intense yoga session in the evening. My brain was asleep and was being rudely awakened with every passing honk and colourful kannada words. Not to forget that my every sinew was screaming for attention ! Thankfully my tummy was pretty happy after a good treat of vada pav washed down with frappe. But I still wanted to hit home and the bed ASAP ! ( forgive me for the techie acronym here, but my writing has been limited to official emails lately ). All this was enough to make my ever patient self run out of patience. Slowly I got used ( indifferent is a better word ) to the traffic noises and just tried to relax. I was also bored of glancing at my watch every second. Then it happened. I was jolted out of from my seat and my reverie. The noise became increasingly louder and closer. I craned out of the window to see the source. My first instinct was to start praying then followed by cursing the traffic and the general apathy of the humans on the road. The best ( or worst ) part was no other human being seemed to have noticed the sound. Or if he had, he was being indifferent to it. Yes, it was late on a friday evening and everyone wanted to get home to their families ( or to a happening party perhaps ) but where had the basic human qualities vanished ? Was it dormant or was it driven away by the crude mechanics of living? As I was battling with these thoughts and also a good mind to scream at everyone, there was some minor shuffling amongst the various vehicles on the road and the noise slowly subsided. I felt a wave of relief and also sent up another prayer. The ambulance did have a strong and urgent need to race against time to save a life while I could sit in the comfortable interiors of the bus for a while more, time didn't matter much to me at that instant.

The countdown began..

The much awaited Olympics is here finally and its currently the talk of the world ! I remember being fascinated by the following countdown timer ( accurate to the second ! ) I saw in Hong Kong early this year. I wonder when the countdown actually began...

Tip of the cone

I was in a state of partial sleep in the bus on my way home yesterday when I saw a little kid with an ice cream cone on the road. He was excitedly biting the bottom of the cone and there was a definite sparkle in his eyes. Now this is a common action with kids; though they are well aware that biting the bottom will cause a great mess soon after, they will still go ahead for the sheer thrill of it. This got me thinking about life. Somethings or rather most things in life are like a cone of ice cream and we often end up biting the bottom of it. It can be tantamount to reaching the end without going through the beginning or the middle. Why do we actually do it ? Is it the adventurous streak ? Or the rebel without a cause, or breaking rules to see what actually happens ? For some it could be an addiction and they have to do it even if they know the aftermath. It could also be a force of habit or simply treading on unknown paths. Or it could simply be the thrill of causing damage and watching it. For me the most apt reason would be to be a child again. So for all those of you who are afraid to take that proverbial bite, do go ahead; if the cone is damaged, there is always another one !

P.S - While I was browsing for a picture I actually found this one which is a book cover. Looks like an interesting topic for a book !