My Trip to Office

Initially when I was moved to the city office I hated it.. I was alone, a new project, new teammates, new workplace and new mode of transport! It took a while to get used to. I used to take the office bus to commute from home to office and back but since this was the CITY office I had to find my own means of transport.

I do not own a two-wheeler and I will not drive the car all the way. Left with no other option I used to took the MTC buses to commute. It was quite a journey. First of all there was only one bus in this particular route, perpetually crowded and not very frequent. I would push myself to take a bus in the mornings and evenings..It was a torture. But then, somebody told me that there was a "Share Van" and then started my daily excursion to office!!!

You can find the most eclectic group of people who travel with me in this van. Around 12 of us take the van and the group constitutes mostly of middle aged men and women working for the postal department. Let me tell you about some of these interesting people.

Well there is this lady who likes to boast but does it in such a subtle way that it takes some time for to sink in :) She goes on grumbling about her work load and her children. On a normal day she would start of saying, "My daughter you know she doesn’t eat properly.." (read this very carefully u'll find how she drives home her point) She goes on to say,"I place food for her on the dining table but she is sitting on the sofa watching stuff on the TV. While my son is listening to the radio. But I am very strict I dont let them eat sitting on the sofa as they will spoil the carpet. But I have to shout at her to get her to eat and she doesn’t even clean up the table and put things back in the refrigerator.... " she goes on and on like this.. ( Hope u got what I wanted you to c..:D).

Then there is this man, who is as stiff as a rod, wont even talk. He has got such piercing eyes , it really unnerves you. But he is very intriging as he can communicate with his wife just by looking at her.. It was interesting to see the unspoken words being understood and such a chemistry between the two. Well thats new to me!!

A lady who is perpetually late and thinks she can do 'trivial' thing like having breakfast and making up the hair in the van. The lady loves flowers. She has got shoulder length hair and pulls it into a neat pony tail and decorates it with so many flower garlands that I wonder if people would mistake her to be a walking flower garden...:)

One interesing person in the van is this Lady with a big mole on her nose... From what I gather, she was brought up in a village and moved to the City in search of better opportunity. But this lady is very knowledgeable. She talks on varied topics starting from exchanging recipes with the other women to current topics like the Kushboo issue.... She talks about land /rent rates, invesment plans and what not ...a very interesting lady indeed... hmm.. She is one person I look for when I board the van every morning.

It would not be complete if I dont mention my Van driver. He is the stereo-typed driver, irritated with the world,constantly complaining about how the ladies delay at various bording points, driving rash, cutting corners fine, cursing the traffic, the road, the corporation maintaining it and everybody in general...

And to top it all the radio blares with ‘Mirchi Suchi’ and her usual inane chatter.... and those gross tamil songs.. (dapanguthu). It is quite a trip to office. Its amusing to see this eclectic group of people traveling to their destinations, some preoccupied with work while others still thinking about what they have left undone at home, reluctantly going to office for yet another day of drudgery. The half hour trip to office, every morning, is perhaps the most entertaining part of my otherwise boring day.