Evening snarls in a Metro

At 6:00 PM I went outside of my office for a chit-chat cum tea session with my friends. This is our regular time to come out of the office, by this time Bangalore roads are full of burstling traffic, work is over, people are now heading to their homes.

In a city like Bangalore or other metros this is such a challenge to reach back to your nest. Buses are full, auto valls are struggling to make their way, company shuttles carrying their employees from far offices. Its such a mess but unfortunately its a daily affair which one has to bear.

Sometimes rain also add to people's problmes, one ends up stuck in traffic jams for hours(I have been a victim of this several times). This is one of the problems which comes as a complimentary with big cities.

I was born and brought up in a small city, so travel time was never a problem. Even if you want to travel to other end of the city it will take you maximum 15-20 mins. I still remeber my father used to be at home by 6:30(by the time I also had to be at home :)) even when he left office by 6:20, that was fixed because there was no traffic jams to welcome him on his way back. You can't have the same luxury here. One should know all the shortcuts and sometimes even break the signals to avoid the traffic which sometimes proves costly. People call to their home before leaving office as its a new journey altogether, indeed it is.

But one whole breed survives on this all the Mela, vendors, chai valas, chat thelas. People waiting on a bus stop or a person waiting for a cab has plenty of time to kill which creates lots of business for these vendors. When there is a traffic jam or a person is tired in mid of his journey, he can always step by and roadside thella to get his enthu back. If you are lucky may be you can run into an old friend on one of these kind of joints.

As they say every morning comes with a new start but I would say its almost true for the evenings too in Metros. Thats why they are called Metros.

Love,
Mayank