stuck in traffic...

its messed up all right and there are so many times that i wish that it wasn't the way it is...but then i stop and ask myself, "are we having fun?" and most often than not, the answer is "Yeah!" cause after all the debates and discussions on life, philosophy, spirituality and what not, i have kindda figured out that life's a crazy thing & you gotta have fun. you owe that to yourself...

anyways, as everyone knows, lately my life has been a total bore. now, i enjoyed it while it lasted but the fact remains that sitting at home with nothing to do, adding to the pool of the literate unemployed, setting the daily time-table in accordance to the cat’s feeding time and watching the distressful situation of our world on TV is something that i have gotten accustomed to. its like...

sometimes in life you get stuck in traffic. you are surrounded by people and yet you are alone in your car. at first you take it calmly. you just sit back and tune in to the radio. pretty soon your mind starts to wander. the incessant blabbering of the RJ are of no interest to you. so you start to look around you. you check out the car behind you in the rear-view. you read the bumper sticker on the socially in adept punk in front of you. you smile at a humorous incident that crops up in your mind as if from nowhere. but then you slowly start to loose patience. your planner starts to beep and remind you that you have an important meeting at work that afternoon for which you still have to prepare. you have a million other things to do and none of them can wait. you start to tap your fingers on the steering wheel...slowly the laid back behaviour that you had earlier is turning into a mild annoyance. you try and figure out what the hell is it that has you stuck here in this spot? must be one of those bloody overloaded trucks/tempos that must have overturned. or maybe it is just some road digging expedition by the municipality/road development authority that has ended in the road being converted into a bottle-neck instead. damn it! now you are getting annoyed. you have been stuck in the same spot for almost an eternity. the guy behind you has resorted to honking. the bloody F#@$er thinks that honking like mad will get you moving. despite the heartfelt annoyance at him you feel like doing the same. you want to honk. you want to let others know that you are angry...and before you know it you are just one among millions of frustrated individuals stuck in traffic on the third rock from the sun. now you wish that all those whacko sci-fi writers were right and that they in reality had those interstellar hyper ways...so you just sit there and honk. time flies while you remain stuck and by now you are tired of honking. you are late for half of all the stuff that you had planned for the day. now you are going to have to work during lunch hour for that meeting. the frustration is at its peak and the non-stop ringing of the cell phone doesn't help either. you are tired. the amount of energy that purposeless sitting requires is astounding. and then suddenly, just like that, you give up. that's it. Alles Klar. Fin. you make up your mind that you are going nowhere today. you are destined to be stuck in traffic all day and maybe you will even grow old sitting here in you car. you give the steering wheel a last big thwack and you curse out loud. and then you recline that seat as far as it goes and close your eyes. soon everything begins to fade away and you start to imagine yourself in your happy place. you are no longer annoyed. you begin to relax and let the feeling sink in...and then suddenly you are abruptly shaken out of your siesta by a sharp honk from the guy behind you. you sit up and rub your eyes only to see the guy who was in front of you fading away into the distance. still groggy, you rev up the car and step on the gas. you find yourself on the Freeway and zooming at 100 km an hour as you try to catch up with the others. you also become one of those people who are trying to catch up on lost time while at the same time trying to come to terms with the sudden change of going from standstill to driving at 100 km/hr.

...and then you notice the time on the dash board and realize...all that...the eternity that you just spent stuck in traffic had all but lasted 20 min...

well folks, 4 days ago i got a call from dad. my admission at MSU in Baroda has been confirmed and i have to report in person before the 15th of this month. so, a new city to live in, new friends to make, new stuff to study. and all this within 10 days. it seems i got my 0 to 100 km/hr jolt. have spent the last couple of days running around the sland trying to say my goodbyes, buying stuff to give to folks back in India, making sure i have all the papers i need from the University here and trying to book a ticket. almost all is taken care of and i today morning i got my tickets as well. i shall be flying out of this island on the 10th evening.

i'm not sure how i feel about all this. i am excited no doubt. but also kindda nervous. don’t' know how this is all going to end...so just wish me luck.

if everything happens right as of this moment, my next post shall be from India...