Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The start of a day..

Well this is something that each Bangalorean faces almost daily. The twist in my case is that this saga is more pronounced. Did you get that? :) . Most of us have 2 distinct lives; the office life and the family life. I am talking about the phase of transition between to two. Ok.... Ever heard of the preface being 25% of the book? or heard of a movie where credits appear till the interval? Errrr... I will no more try my crappy ways of unfolding things. In plain words, I am talking about the commute between home and work. A solid 2 hours that i spend in the morning and in the evening.!!!!

So as I wake up to the most irritating sound on earth, the alarm, a sense of the "long way to go" embarks on my mind. Needless to say, I have got used to it.. :). After getting out of the house with lightning speed, i get teleported into the cab (teleported, coz i am too sleepy to remember the walk to the cab.. !!ha)

The cab starts from my point and starts proceeding along the tumkur road. This was the road that was filled with huge trees on either sides till a year ago. Then the development bug set in and ate away all the trees. Now the picturesque Tumkur road is a bland stretch of bald land. And with the flyover being built along, the road is in shambles. Wading through it, we reach the hesarghatta cross, which a few years back, was a calm and "no-traffic" junction, but today a very busy signal with a potential causualty of 20 minutes to the driving schedule.

Just after the signal is Reliance Infocomm, one of the very few IT companies in that area with an office completely clad with black glasses (affectionaltely known as the 'burkha' building for "need-not-be-explained" reasons.. :)). A little ahead is the BBMP office which apparently caught fire twice just before the Lokayukta raids. A truly professional timing. Isnt it?!.

They say things stay back in mind, long after their physical demise. I guess they were referring to roaring sounds of the lorries which were a commonplace, when the place near the BBMP office was - once upon a time - a check post. As the city expanded, the govt realised they could collect the taxes from the lorries much earlier in the new outskirts. As a side-effect, the check post had found a new abode much away from the city a few years back.

Bangalore has a tradition (not sure of the other cities) of glorifying shops as major landmarks like Brahmins cafe, vidyarthi bhavan, sivananda stores and so on. One such semi-glorified outlet is the Mohan bakery in Dasarahalli, which is just next to the BBMP office. A small outlet whose years of glory is inversely proportional to its size. Irrelevant, as it may seem, this bakery has never fascinated me with any of its stuff.

And thus, i reach the dasarahalli bus stop. Or i must say, the starting point of the bus stop. Due to the road work, this had got shifted to many places in the 50 meter stretch. The shifting was so frequent that people are totally clueless about the present situation. And the BMTC bus drivers are more clueless. !

By now, I feel a little awake in the cab.. i had travelled around 2-3 kms from home and had around 38 more to go, to reach office.... And the day had just begun.. :)