Wednesday, May 21, 2008

My morning commute

A few days back, hubby dear and I were talking (or rather, I was talking and he was listening) about the "mehengaai", everything getting so expensive, grocery bills doubling over (yeah, yeah, the regular aate-daal ka bhaav waala discussion), etc.

I mentioned how gas prices sky-rocket every summer when we need to run the AC and use more gas...blah blah. And then Ms Big Mouth said, you know we should car-pool to work whenever we can. His office is across the street from mine, and running two premium-gas guzzling BMWs on the same route everyday does not make sense, economically as well as environmentally. And I even offered to drive. He was all happy, I mean who can refuse a free ka chauffeur, right?

I usually get to work by 10, and he by 11. Today, he had a meeting at 10 as well, and I asked him if wanted to come with me. He said, sure.

Now start my trials and tribulations! The drive to work is 15 minutes on a good day, after 10:00am when the traffic thins out a little. And there is a signal between his office and mine. And he leaves exactly 15 minutes before his first meeting of the day, and wanted to do that even today. He figures that I would need 5 minutes to get back from his office to mine, so we should leave at 9:40. I got a teensy-weensie jolt in my heart, no way was this plan going to work! I survived that one though. Whew!

I was getting all nervous, I am SO going to be late! And he goes no, no, we will be fine. He's happily taking his time getting ready, while I have all my stuff loaded in the car, getting more nervous with every passing minute.

We get in the car at exactly 9:40, and I am already jealous. Why does he get to sit there happily and not me? And he doesn't even observe things on the road like I do. He should be driving, and I should be sitting and observing the world and talking about it. Anyway, we get out on the main road, and all 4 lanes are packed. I whine, "We are going to be so late". And he's re-assuring me, it'll be fine, dear, relax. I realized then that there is no point in fretting. I brought this upon me, I offered to do this, and anyway, worrying is not going to get us there any faster.

But damn these cars, why can't they move faster. Why do I always get stuck behind the driver who's slow coz he's lost and has no clue what to do. I started my tirade about why the driver ahead of me is stuck in the same spot, why can't he move, and husband says, he IS moving, see? No, me no see! I am so itching to drive like I always do, zipping between lanes whenever I can, squeeze into whatever space I can find. But he hates that, and has non-stop commentary every time I am driving. So I try to be patient for some time. But can't take it anymore, and try to switch lanes and he screams, "car, car". I got back in my lane and start to wonder, why did I not see it?? Ahaaa, because his head was filling up the window! Grr! I finally do manage to get ahead of the lost tourist in front of me. We reached an intersection, where I decide to turn left, and husband speaketh: Go straight.
Me: What?
Him: No, nothing (yayy, he's learning! Finally, after 5 years, he is learning to let me be!)

I dropped him off in time for his meeting (and btw, he told me at the very last minute that he needs to be in a different building, not his own!), and heaved a sigh of relief, a BIG sigh of relief, the minute he stepped out. I was SO tempted to just go back and do the drive all by myself, without this..this..this stranger sitting here . He wasn't even doing anything to annoy me, just sitting there quietly, thats all. Still, I was like, whew, he's finally gone!

I always drive when we go out together, so its nothing new to have him there by me. But this was totally unexpected! Almost like a sacrilege of my commute, my time to myself! I am surprised that I did not like it! I guess I will get used to it, but man, I feel so weird about it right now!

Well, he was right, I made it in time too. Now I just hope I don't forget to pick him up in the evening!!!
.

35 comments:

Cinderella said...

I am so outta blogdom di !

Vacationing at home now, till the end of next week...read all your previos posts too...

Kaise ho ?

♥ÐÅyÐяєÅмє®♥ said...

didi

heheheh
it was the funniest read..
matlab... I m not telling ki aapki tension situation inni funny thi

but hehehe
par sachhi mein thi

u loved to squeeez in lil spacees
lol
di u r an ideal driver for banaras

pata hai yah log ko yehi nhi pata ki overtake drivind side se nhi kiya jata..yaha left se hi log ghus jate hai..aap mast chala logi...mujhe toh bahut darr lagta hai...

hehehe
waise jiju sounds so kool :P
no tension type...hehehe
sham ko yaad kar k waps le jana... :P

Pavi!!!! said...

Well dear a lot of points in this post are fit to be in the “Things ur thankful for”.
(I haven’t gone to that blog for a while…so my apologies, if these points are already there!)
-Ur offices’ start at 10 am n 11 am!!! I’m J! Mine starts at 7:30 or 8:00 Am!
- U guys have 2 BMWs!
- N don’t get me wrong…but u guys’ offices is opp to each other n u bot drive separately! That’s bad! C’mmon u can save some moolah as well as do good for the environment by sharing the car. U 2 can take turns driving.
- N ur hubby sits quiet in the car letting u drive how u want!

Gurl ur luckyyyyyyyy !!!!!

Vrijilesh Rai said...

Lucky u gets to drive on well maintained roads... that too a BMW!!

aneri_masi said...

@Ella, good to see you here :) Araam farmaya jaa raha hai, huh? Me doing good as always!

@sourish, thats it. I ain't talking to you! If guys zip around in their snazzy cars, they are cool, and if I do that, I am fit to drive in crazy places like banares! hmpph!
And you're right abt him, nothing ruffles him much, at least not today.

@pavi...
- our work starts early too, conference calls and meetings etc that we take from home, we just go in late to beat the rush
- yeah, you're right abt the 2 bimmers :)
- our timings are different. he comes much later than i do, i go earlier than he does. but I think we are gonna try car-pooling as much as possible. I think he enjoyed the ride today ;)
- hehe, I think it was because this weekend he made 3 big mistakes in one single drive, which I pointed out to him very calmly, without the hullabaloo that he creates :)

But overall, yes, I am lucky :)

@vrij, aha, now thats putting things into the right perspective. Lucky me indeed! I like my commute actually, i like to notice stuff and people on the way.

Anonymous said...

Very interesting n cute read Kash :). one of sweet things while doing things together :))

Solitaire said...

Did you pick him up this evening?

And did you give up your vow of not blogging during work hours?

aneri_masi said...

@ashu, yeah, it was all quite cute actually :)

@sol, yeah, he called, mujhe le jaao :) and i wrote the post during my off hours, i have half hr in the am and half hr in the pm for it. nahi to i will die ;p

Solitaire said...

Cool!! So will the tension repeat tomorrow???

Ankur said...

hehe... waise aapne pick kara ki nahi finally ;)

ahahah

mujhe lagta hai ki even i will have fun like this after shaadi :P

hahaha
bahut maja aya mujhe toh padhkar D: :D
ehehe

Cheers!!!

P said...

nice post :)
I think I understand how you were feeling. I am used to driving alone, but every time my bf comes to visit, I feel the same. Unfortunately he hasn't learnt to keep his mouth shut or say "No, nothing" yet.

aneri_masi said...

@sol, don't know. depends on his schedule for tomorrow. he won't go even 15 min early even if it means a free ride :)

@ankur, yeah, I brought him back. Was actually good to have some company on the way back, unlike in the morning.

@p, well, it took me 5 yrs, and I am not sure how long its gonna last ;) It was the first time he didn't scream his head off about my speed, the lane I am in, and god knows what else! Also, check my response to Pavi..

rantravereflect/ jane said...

tat was supremely entertaining- 'sacrilege of my commute' tat was so well- put.. ya dooo have a way with expressing your emotions..

2 premium gas-guzzling BMW's - wowwwwww- now i wunder how ya manage to wriggle into the tiny spaces n intersections-- wowww, maybe i shud come with ya on a drive sumday-
nahhh not to worry, i'm a woman, so i'm in for sum 'hurrrayyyyy' ridin :):):)

we are weird ryte- (the we being women). we get sooo darn freaked out abt lil' things and the men jus sit there, without a single ruffle inside, n their indifference makes us madder!!:)

love the way y awrite :)
mwuaah:*

aneri_masi said...

@rantra, hey you, am sooo glad you understand my feelings! whew! finally, someone out there :)

how I squeeze into little spaces? actually I am a pretty safe driver, the spaces are not as small as they sound in my post. but anything is possible with my dhanno :) didja see her pics?

A said...

how was it today? getting used to it?

--xh-- said...

ha ha ha..at least, he sits and enjoys teh drive without giveing u driections, rt? :-D car pooling will wrk only if time can be synchronised....
me and my collegue tried bike polling - we both stay in same compound - but had to call it off coz of difference in wrk hours...
na dyeah, i still get a bit nervous whn i chauffer my dad :)

~ ॐ ~ said...

phew...

I will have to be careful sometime in future !!!

:)

aneri_masi said...

@anjuli, tu pagla gai hai :) how was it today, you say? read the post again, it was about today!

@xh, so right about car-pooling. we'll do it only when the morning schedules match, shaam ka chalta hai.

@prashant, aisa kyu bolte ho? I am a very very safe driver! kasam se! even my dad agrees, and I think thats the biggest certificate!

Ankur said...

new post up :D

♥ÐÅyÐяєÅмє®♥ said...

lol
di ghussa nhi hote :P
wapas pick kiya k nhi???

khikhikhi..

gypsy said...

:)...

thats all i did...after reading this

Rià said...

Wow BMW!!hw cool is that...I admire u for being so fiercely independent :) I dont even know to drive till nw! :(

Macadamia The Nut said...

I SO hear you girlfriend!! Starting July I have an hour-long interstate drive to look forward to. Ewck!

Ankur said...

waise any plans to take him along today ;) :P :P

hahaha


Cheers!!!

Anonymous said...

hehe... so this happened today??? lol....

was this the first time u uys were going to the office together.? never tried carpooling before???

tension itna kyu>?

abhi shaam ko jane me kya tension..lena saath me aaram se jana..ghar hi to jana hai

Mysterious Mia said...

i quite liked that fact that yur husband agreed in the first place that u guys can pool a car....
i lyke...

aneri_masi said...

@samby, no, no, this was yesterday. i am always tensed about getting some place in time, i hate being late, and he is the very relaxed types. isliye tension, aur kuch nahi. just posted it here as a funny story, nothing more :)

@anvita, arey, he agreed because he likes being driven around. but aaj nahi aaya :)

Anonymous said...

well well... hehhehe!

u knw what... i get goose bumps wen i have smeone behind on my Pleasure... on the paths that i have trodded infinite times.... i feel like i will have accidents :D

so dt worry...happens to the best of us :D

[ er!! ok i m not the best :D but u certainly r :]

do u think u will do this AGAIN?

:((

sad no?! :P

Preeti said...

Haha, that is why i dont drive...Uhm, not that i have a husband either, but eitherways :D

Ankur said...

:((((

theek hai

*sigh*
par kal pakka se :-/

warna katti :(

Mysterious Mia said...

awwwwwwwwww babes chalo never mind.....anyways have a rocking weekend...wats plan?

aneri_masi said...

@veens, yeah, i don't mind doing it again, as long he continues being the good boy he was on this trip :)

@anvita, off to houston tomorrow for a wedding!

@preeti, india mein, no way I can drive. Walk karte bhi darr lagta hai, my little nieces hold my hand and take me across!

Pri said...

now this is called 'pair kulhadi pe marna' hehee...
all the best! :D

ceedy said...

heheh

sorry for being late....

well you start late but what time do you usually get out....

i like starting early as I rarely sleep....so am in office around 8.30 but then leave by 4.30 - 5.00...

well if the rate of fuel keep going up as it is....gadi to bandh karke hath gadi me jana padege :)

Preeti said...

EXACTLY! Walkin in itself is sooooo scary! It's not even safe :(