Sunday, June 29, 2008

Travel blues and greens and yellows

So it takes 2hrs for me to get back home from work. On a bad day 2.5 hrs. About 1.5 hrs to reach work in the morning. Surprisingly I don't have as much problem with it as people (including me) thought I'd have. It doesn't bug me so much. Maybe because I was prepared, I knew it was only for a short duration and I am not really loaded at work. I also don't have to come home to screaming kids or a nagging husband and cook or do anything of that sort. So yeah, it turned out ok. What did surprise me though was that I didn't know the traveling would actually help me. For one it is a perfect ice breaker when talking to people. 'So how long did it take today?' , 'Were you stuck there?' I only have to start ranting about the traffic and next thing I know is I am discussing elections with a complete stranger. Second, I quite enjoy the sympathy I get from everybody. 'You come from so far? Really? Must be so tiring'. Third, I escape from work as early as 4:00 pm, only to shop at the factory outlets lined up near the place. No one objected, I live so far you see.

The only problem I have though is that at the end of the day I can't help feel that two precious hours of my day is lost doing nothing. I don't mind the travel in the morning, not being a morning person those hours don't count. I do exactly what I'd do otherwise: Sleep. Traveling back home, I've tried everything possible, I cant sleep, I cant read, I get bored of my playlist easily. With the crap that they play on radio, listening to it is not even an option. So all the two hours goes in daydreaming and introspection. Both of which are useless and unproductive.

I have one more month of traveling to do. I think I am going to miss the travel and the conversations after that. But I really hope in years to come traveling within the city becomes easy. Two hrs a day is not worth losing in commute.

10 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi,

Very Nostalgic travel story, thanks a tonne for sharing the story. It certainly did bring back some memories to me...

FlyingHigh said...

Nostalgic indeed. *sniff*

Anonymous said...

I understand and agree with the most part of what you've said. What I do not agree with is that "Introspection is useless and unproductive". Yes, maybe 2 hours of it everyday is a little too much but its not useless :)

realistic dreamer said...

dont come home to screaming kids- :O its funny yet scary..
AND ye love the title of the post.

~RAUL~ said...

aha...I was in a similar phase 5 years back in B'lore when the "famous" silk board flyover was under construction.

Luckily for me I moved to a new city where the office was 10 mins from my place and right now its just 4 mins walk from my home !!!

One thing you can try doing in the bus is solve the rubik's cube :D

raven said...

hehe.. i liked the "make way for conversation part".. that happens wit me too.. with some arbit stranger i can jus strike up a conversation starting with.. "you kno airport road is so much better these days.." and the topics drift off to everythin under the sun..:)

FlyingHigh said...

aditya, yeah but then I do more daydreaming less introspection.

rd,I know!

raul, I am not as smart as you. But maybe I should give it a try!

raven,I think 'traffic' is blore's fav topic to talk about. And theres no debate, everyone has the same opinion.

Anonymous said...

;) I dont mean to brag. Not showing of either. Takes me 7 minutes to reach office, whle some of my colleagues travel 1 hour. I keep asking them - how do you travel??? Its such a pain. Thats when they tell me to shut up.

FlyingHigh said...

rinchen, 7 min? 7 min? Thats how long it takes me to reach the bus stop. Hmrph. :X

Anonymous said...

Yup 7 mins. If only I could kick off 3 mins, I could be all set to do a Madonna with JT :D