A Beautiful Day
You wake up on the right side of the bed, there's warm sunshine everywhere. Oh the joy of it all. You have a few tasks to do, and upon completion, immense satisfaction will be derived. Important tasks at that too...
And everything goes haywire.
Starting with the fact that you are late.
No smoke to start the day with. (I postulate that it could be the lack of a smoke which twists the fabric of space and time in a manner so as to cause the universe conspire against you and cause grevious hurt. It will be found 50 years down that Arcane Crapper was indeed right when he postulated thus, and unknowingly gave rise to Cigarettostatics.)
And traffic jams. Let me not even get started on that.
If you're familiar with the traffic jams in Bangalore, you will probably have realized (and it's surprising how most people have not) that you spend a considerable amount of time each day at traffic signals.
On an average, 2 minutes at each major junction and 5 minutes in the case of a traffic jam - assuming a daily travel estimate of 30 kms. Multiply by at least 25 junctions per day, of which 10 junctions are experiencing a jam during peak hour. Add it up, and you waste 80 minutes per day. A very reasonable average. Totals to 29200 minutes or roughly 20 days per year. So the next time you want an excuse, use this. Of course, it must be understood that I cannot even start discussing the tortures of all those poor IT professionals who spend hours on the road, simply because I am not one.
So there's this guy on a bike who I guess figured out how much of his life he wasted at traffic signals and broke a red only to have the Arcane Crapper crash into him.
Newton would have been proud. His laws, and the principle of conservation of momentum were so beautifully exemplified. I mean, come on, in this Einstein-crazed world, who even remembers Newton? Yes, I did him proud. In scientific language, it's called 'Collision of two POINT particles'.
A nice bike skid on a busy traffic intersection,
an indifferent cop who just wanted the affected parties to 'clear the area',
and the surprise of actually realizing that I knew the guy who I collided with,
a twisted handlebar,
a semi-broken footrest and
some yelling from dad (who coincidentally grounded the bike and in the process, the Arcane Crapper also. He will now be highly encouraged to explore alternative forms of transport such as the BMTC bus service which many people say, has highly improved.)
I guess this is life's way of keeping things in check. A little disaster here and there. Makes life complete. Fulfilling, almost. Some might even say - "Builds character." Yes, definitely one of those mornings where enlightenment flows free and unconstrained. Realizations follow.
I still cannot forget the sick thud that went through my ears when I fell. I shudder to think what would have happened had the helmet not been there.
Some stinging dettol and avoiding my grandmother later, here I am, in front of the screen staring at the beautiful (yeah right!) screen, listening to Children of Bodom riffing out Warheart, while fingers press the right keys to convey to my fellow human beings an important message.
Life is calling. Where are you?
:)