Hell ride

What an agonizing end of day ...

I usually take an auto-rickshaw till Anand Vihar, followed by a 15-20 minutes bus ride to Dilshad Garden. From there, I take the Metro to reach home. Ahhh sweet home ... which becomes even sweeter after a hard days work. This is my normal commute routine (morning as well as evening). Today, I decided to go back home via bus ... big mistake.

I used to commute via bus (till ISBT and then Metro), especially in the evenings. But the Dilshad Garden route is 15-20 minutes shorter so I usually take that route. Even though traveling via bus means I don’t have to change as many modes of transportation ... those extra 15-20 minutes to reach home don’t go down well with me. Anyhoo ... just for a change I tried the bus yesterday ... and I was pleasantly surprised by the timings. It took me almost same amount of time ... and I didn’t had to change autos and buses to reach the Metro. So I thought that what the heck ... lets do the bus again. As usual ... my luck ran out on me ... within 10 minutes of its journey, the bus met with an accident with a car. To be fair, the bus driver was not at fault ... the stupid car driver was in wrong lane and collided (not badly tough) with the bus ... even though the bus driver tried his best to steer the bus. Boy ... once the car touched the bus, all hell broke loose. The car guy stopped the car in front of the bus and started cussing the bus driver. Things just didn’t ended there ... incidentally the car belonged to some local politician. The car guy called him and within 15 minutes a SUV came ... and out came the local netas (politicians) along with a machine gun clad policeman. Although they didn’t created a scene ... but you can feel it ... they meant business. Somehow the bus driver convinced them (gave them his boss's number ... put 2 plus 2 together) and we were on our way ... again.

The pain was not finished there ... what do you know ... we got stuck in a deadlock traffic jam. At a crossing, the traffic light was not working. What else you need for a complete mayhem ... a broken traffic signal. No wait ... I forgot to mention ... there were no traffic policemen either to control the situation. Ahahahaha ... now the picture is complete ... total anarchy ... absolute chaos ... you gotta feel amazed at darn luck sometimes. After plenty of yelling and honking, the bus driver managed to squeeze the bus and finally I reached ISBT Metro station. I looked at the time ... I was 40 minutes late. Fuck !!!

I tried to calm myself and started to climb up ... was practically running on the escalator. But could not reach the platform on time ... watched the train go pass by ... damn it ... now I was totally pissed. I could have caught the train but due to those assholes on the escalator I could not. Why do people block the entire escalator ... leaving no room for people to climb up. When a person is going up the escalator (walking) ... have some goddam courtesy and leave some fucking room. Gosh ... I was so angry that I literally wanted to kick their asses. Anyhoo ... I did not ... wuss. I looked up and saw that the next train is 4 minutes away. OK ... not so bad. I was waiting in the queue ... the train came ... the doors opened ... and the asshole behind me decided to break the line and rush in. I just had enough of shit for the day ... I totally hulked up ... and gave him a piece of mind. Why do people have to rush in ... just for the sake of seat? If you are old or a girl ... I can understand ... but if you are a grown ass man ... there is no excuse to rush in. 15 minutes of standing won't make you paraplegic.

Things like these make me feel ashamed ... people not leaving rooms on escalators ... rushing in to grab a seat in Metro. I have experienced the subway in NYC, the tube in London, and the Bangkok metro ... believe me ... those public transportation carry more people than Delhi’s Metro ... but I have never seen such rudeness ... such indecent behavior. When will Delhi’s people grow up???

Finally, I reached home ... a thought crossed my mind ... I got down at ISBT ... but most of the commuters do not take the Metro ... they travel the rest of the journey in the bus itself ... and judging by traffic, I can safely assume that they would have reached their homes ... at least 60-70 minutes late than usual ... I feel pity ... may god bless them with a good night sleep.

Even after all this ... I will take the bus tomorrow as well ... see I am "try anything twice" kinda guy ... and for me first impressions are not always the last impression. LOL !!!

Cheers ... time for me to go now and take a well deserved nap ... will see you all soon. Chao !!!