Thursday, December 11, 2008

Those 30 minutes

In what has been one of the most bizarre "moves" of my life so far, I have "moved" from a pretty calm, far less polluted Noida to a costly, cosmopolitan cyber city Gurgaon; a move more stupid than jumping from a frying pan to fire (a famous Kannada saying). Although now I stay just about a kilometer away from my office, the journey from my room to my office is not at all short of description.

As I put on my jacket and leave the room, I put my hands deep into my pants pockets to avoid them from getting frozen. My initial phase of this 30 minute journey makes me inhale a lot of carbon dioxide mixed with dust, thanks to the construction works happening around my room. I walk past these half built buildings, taking care that no brick or stone hits my head.

Now I reach the city’s one of the most crowded and dirtiest roads. I need to cross to the other end, a stunt which can only be performed by Akshay Kumar and that too, after you pay him a handsome amount. For a minute or two, I stand there looking at the cars racing away in front of my eyes. The BMWs, the Mercedes, the Audis, you name it, I can see it. Those cars which I used to see only in auto magazines an year ago, have now become an obstacle making me difficult to go to the other end of this highway. After raising my palm to stop the cars, having a few narrow escapes from motorcyclists, listening to a few gaalis in Haryanvi accent, I finally manage to accomplish the intimidating task.

Now comes the best part of my journey as I enter the premises of Infinity Towers, a tall flamboyant structure housing some of the leading multi national companies of the world. As soon as I cross the gates of this dashing building, I slow down my walking pace. Not that my legs are tired, but there is a feast waiting for my eyes. I turn my head and look upon the people moving, just can’t help noticing the tall, fair female species with huge sunglasses on their eyes, stylish designer bags swinging on their shoulders, heading towards their destination on high heeled shoes, straight silky hair bouncing on their back and lots of other things that I can’t mention here. Why isn’t my office just opposite to this "lovely looking" building?

As I look at my watch, I realize that I have spent just a little more time in looking at this building and the people working in here. I switch on to the top gear and start moving fast. In the process, I hit an electric pole, rubbed shoulder with a guy having a red turban on his head and almost got banged by a Honda City car. In the meantime my cell phone starts ringing. With one eye on the phone and the other watching out for the automobiles trying to send me to hell, I pick the phone just to discover that it’s from one of the banks who are willing to grant me a loan.

Crossing all these hurdles that would threaten my existence on this planet, I finally reach my office, exert all my force on the elevator button after waiting for a couple of minutes and find that it’s already overloaded with people. Giving them a smile, cursing the elevator in my heart, I climb up some 70 steps to reach to my cubicle and say to myself, "Wait… The day has just begun!!!"