Rattling commuters or cylinders

Walking past my colleagues at work, I realized its just not the ‘out of shape’ me adding to the list of unhealthy or malnourished aimless souls but many, whom I know and don’t know. Rows of seated genders saccading every letter on the keyboard, monitor and time, wondering if the deliverables will be met along with a not so long yet, anticipated encouraging email from the manager. Toggling between home and office life streams through the paid hours, slendering thoughts at a narrow end. Concentration here is a battle. Phufff !!!!

Life isnt that bad after all. Relaxation does come into our real life of a devoted wife or a daughter during the long back and forth commute. As most IT companies or MNCs are located on the outskirts of the city, irreversing the possibility of a short travel is ruled out. To eke out an refreshing twirl during the rolling tyres is initiated at the very strike of 5:30pm on our monitor with a speedy pack of our belongings and rush like ‘famished children to a candy story’ to our dear cab, lining horizontally at the building sideline.

Initiation:
The usual settling down succumbs as the wheels run, soon overtaken by varied noise of different frequencies. Our interesting start happens with the usual ‘who said this to whom’, ‘what she/he did’ and blah blah blah… Once the office gossips is over, our focus shifts towards thrilling activities which flies through:

Ø Eating
Who doesn’t love it? Once an adulated me is now replaced by the term ‘obese’. Why? For starters, we have a food court in the ground floor. Now a food court like the name suggests, is a big court with many food outlets serving vegetarian to non-vegetarian, Indian to continental, punjabi to madrasi cuisines. Did I forget to add the junk part of it? Naaaaaaaaaaaa, we also have burgers, fries and colas of McDonalds to KFCs. Subway is a way cornered, visited by few as well. The ‘Nuts and Spices’ corner is an oasis in the epicentre of a busy comb of employees from top notched companies marked with sweets and savouries of all kinds, from all parts of the country and world. Infiltrated with youngsters who need to keep fit by eating healthy food, binge on the layers of food stacks of all kinds. Money doesn’t seem to prevent the buy resulting in a huge pile of cholestrol lurking nearby, inside.

This is just not it. We do get to stop somewhere on the way when the sky is too heavy and roads horribly busy, sneaking into ‘Kerala chips’ for bags of crispy and crunchy ‘salted’ and/or ‘spicy’ potato chips, banana chips with murukku at times or the ‘Murugan Idli Shop’ for a mouth watering treat of ‘small, round, steamy, fluffy, white, spongy idlis with 3 varieties of chutney, podi, hole wada, chakara pongal and filter coffee with jigargandha as the dessert (liked by Kalkaand). The bajji’s of potato, onion and banana doesn’t lose its position in the battle of ‘I want to be eaten’. It sways itself with contemptness to the round belly, slowly forming the yellow layer soon to stay as a permanent member when bought from the local cart outside office, venkateshwara poli stall or the stall near kerala chips. For a change, the steamed corn too makes an entry with its tangy coating of chilli powder, salt and lemon juice. Then again, nothing is more tastier than a fry, be it potato bajji or chips and personally for me, the 'Murugan Idlis'tops the list.
P.S: this is the cause for the transformation of a curved structure to a cylinder.

Ø Singing
From ‘aleypayuthe’ to ‘mungare male’ to ‘o my friend’ to ‘heal the world’ to ‘papa kehte hain or a pehla nasha’, the list is endless. We play a game called antakshari too singing like nomads at the top of our voice, deafening the other with mixed expressions and actions. Our audience, those who travel by bus, auto, car, two-wheeler, pedestrian near the signal etc, the eyes just glare at the courage and melody of our vocal chord stinging us with a ‘we want more’ look. I wonder where is Rahman and Shankar, Ehsan, Loy.

Ø Debate
Topics of any kind. A movie watched recently, a television series, something from NGC or discovery, diseases, life, guys and their ill attitude, places, corruption with politics, animal welfare, sewage systems and what not. Annoying shows of a Rakhi Sawant to a pompous ‘Karan Johar’, Ageing ‘Rajani or Amitabh’ to a we are bored ‘Give new talent a chance’ for a change, endless flights of the ‘Congress to the BJP’, corruption in ‘politics’ to the scams in the ‘army’, kidnaps of minors to rapes of women by protectors, raging waters to forest fires and dry lands, pollution of nature to system to people, What will I do If I was given a chance to make the country better to whom will I sack first for all our demerits, just name it and we have it all… am tired now.. my list could go on and on and on!!!

Ø Dumbcharades
We divide ourselves in groups of two, one member enacts, while the others guesses. It’s a short and sweet game with few members like our fraud wcc texting the answer through his mobile to his teammates.. what a cheater….Grrrr!!!

Ø 20 questions game
Each one has to think of a famous personality. The first one will start by playing dumb giving only a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ as answer. The others will have to guess the personality’s name by asking questions. E.g. if you think of hitler, I can ask you 20 questions like –
1) Is this person an Indian?;
2) Is this person a man or a woman?;
3) Does this person act in movies?

Ø Sight seeing
Tired of all that, lets see whats outside. Wait I can see a couple on a bike, a dog scratching his ears or looking at a human with its ‘die for’ eyes asking for some food, women fights near the water tank with beautiful colored baskets on their hips, an old couple holding hands and crossing the road, cranes or parrots flying around or above you, sky-scrappers, ads, food stalls..and what not.. It’s the time to notice something which nowadays we hardly have the time or patience to do.

My cab truly falls under the category of ‘National Integration’. It’s a mix of culture, cuisines and craziness. We have members from the northern and southern parts on India with few who have travelled distant lands within the country. ‘Amazing’ is a peek at the others life, their city, school, bringing up, parents, most interestingly crushes and love outside and within the office (if at all). Life doesn’t seem to hault and travelling never seeks boredom. Its strange with the amout of time we’ve spent with eachother, lots are archived waiting to be discovered. In the meantime, you could think of what you do or could do. Post your ideas here and help me in having more interactive sessions with my cabmates.

Adios commuters !!!