A journey of 5 Kms

“What am I doing?” This question keeps popping in my mind. If I have an answer to this question, “Why am I doing?” can be thought of. There is a fundamental problem, as what is coming before why. You can tackle the why part only when you are sure of what part. Why comes in layer higher than what, in between lies the how. If you are thinking how then you have not transcended to the upper most layer of why. What?
When you have the answer to these 3 questions in any stage of life, you will be blessed with the ability to sustain the fire, which in turn will deliver outstanding performances. The point is, lets come to the point.
I go to office everyday. Why I go, will be a mundane question, right? But then I go to earn money. Period. How I go, well, this parameter is a function of time, environment and mood. Personally I will prefer a bi-cycle. But then, what will you say if a manager rides a bicycle for a distance of 5 Kms to his office? A majority of the people will transcend to the upper why layer when it comes to a spicy topic about other. The minds around me can have these possibilities to think, as thinking is free of cost – He is turning insane, got an attitude man, saving fuel, healthy option, saving money, cannot spend money, to be different, afraid of cars, what the f*** is he proving(for those who cannot move up to the why layer). As I believe in reaching to the work place in a cool, serene mood and I am not selfish, so I do not ride bicycle to my office. But then nobody thanks me for helping them not to think about the why.
I prefer to call myself, homo sapiens, machine waala. In the morning on a working day, this machine prefers to deliver output in range, like waking up 7-7:15 am, reading newspaper 0-20 minutes. These output are all inter-related and they co-ordinate to achieve the goal of reaching office in time. Many times during this process, the mind fails to transcend to the upper why layer. It mostly thinks about how. Like, how to brush quickly, how not to waste too much time in relieving yourself , how to eschew the paternity responsibilities and so on. The self error feed back mechanism is activated mostly at the time of leaving the house, by thinking what have I forgotten. (No time remains to meditate on why ).
The particular day, on which this story is based, I went out of the house after finishing the entire morning activities in time. Whistling merrily I started my car and tuned the radio for the best playing song. Hardly did I cross the neighbor’s parking than the front tyre busted. Be cool, I told myself. After parking the car, I borrowed my dad’s scooter and headed for the office.
I had placed myself in an uncomfortable zone. The temperature was 3 degree Celsius and I had put on clothes to travel inside the car. By the time I shifted to the second gear, the movement control center in the brain lost signals from my palms as they were exposed to extreme cold. The signals get frozen on the way to the brain. So, my palms got shifted to self-administered mechanism. Nobody likes to be controlled by others! The palm inspired other body parts to live independently. They also started taking help from the extreme cold! The palm found the weakness of the controller and in the hope of becoming a hero (and later the controller), communicated the weakness to other fellow parts. The brain is blessed with the virtue of patience and perseverence. It will wait till the external environmental factors become conducive to re-gain the control and it will keep trying under all circumstances to get the work done. I thought that this thought is the effect of my father’s helmet.
At the first red light, I became the first victim of the traffic policeman’s whistle. All other vehicles started lining up beside me. When no space was left, the vehicles started piling behind my scooter. I used to see people on two wheelers observing me inside my car. Now, sitting on the scooter, I am curious to observe the people inside the four-wheelers around me. Perhaps, I could connect better with their thoughts now. These thoughts must have crossed their minds:
Adnam Sami’s line – kaise kaise ko diya hai, mujhko bhi lift kara de (God, you have made the unworthy richer, now it’s my turn, make me a rich man!)
Why is he is in such a small car?
Why is he in a car?
My car, which is bigger and better than yours, is in the service center/punctured/going to be delivered. So, if you think why am I travelling on a two-wheeler then it is by choice, not by compulsion. Wait till you see my car!
The marginal utility of satisfaction of using my two wheeler has not expired. Once I start driving a car, I will get bored in a couple of years. After that I cannot drive a bus. So, let me be saturated riding this two wheeler, before I buy a car better than yours!
It is so cold, why don’t you swap vehicles?
Good that you are inside a car in this cold.
What are you thinking, eh?

There ought to be some thoughts which cannot cross the ‘what’ level. While, there are thoughts like last one which are no thoughts at all. At least people can reach the ‘what’ level of thinking, rather than thinking nothing at all!
A sports bike came zapping trough the traffic behind me, crossed the zebra lines and stood in front of all the vehicles. I turned around to calculate the space through which the bike came cutting the lines of vehicles. Perhaps, the new age bike had a compression mechanism. You press a button and bingo! the bike reduces in size. That will be extreme adjustability and flexibility.
Two – three other bikes also crossed the zebra lines and stood inches before the sports bike. Man, this spirit of competition in youths makes India propel forward. I found all pair of eyes, including those sitting on the bikes, looking towards the pillion rider on the sports bike. Soon, I discovered a babe hugging the rider of the sports bike. She was sitting with her back inclined towards her man so that the upper torso could be completely attached to him. She dared to wear a knee length skirt in this cold and her smooth, shiny legs below the knee were parallel to her back. She was holding the rider with both hands wrapped around, eh, the lower tummy. The scene from the movie Swordfish flashed before me. No sooner the traffic light turned green than the sports bike shot ahead like a bullet. All male eyes which got filled with hope and female eyes which got filled with jealousy came back to reality. Like me, two-three other vehicles which were blinking the right turn light of their vehicles, turned right towards the edge of the road.
Struggling through the fog, stray cattle, racing cycle rickshaw, I got stuck in the next traffic light. A couple of beggars were knocking the window panes of the cars and holding the sleeves of the two-wheeler riders. They were either ignored or shooed away. A lady sitting in a car was busy reading the ‘durga chalisa’, sending an SMS and simultaneously eating an apple. That’s multi tasking of the modern world!
A clock tower stood at the middle of the intersection of the four roads, with the clock displaying the time in each direction. I was not surprised to see the sign board of an accident prone zone, below the tower.
Like many professional aspects, when it comes to punctuality, my boss is my role model. If you see him entering the office in the morning, it ought to be 9:00 am by your watch. If he is not on his seat by 9:10 am, we plan for a morning show at a cinema hall near by. But, I could count such happy chances over the last couple of years. I wished myself luck!
A couple of seconds is kept in buffer before a traffic light turns red and another turns green. This buffer is displayed in yellow. These few seconds test the patience and nerve of the drivers and riders. At the start of the yellow, many motorists accelerate to avoid waiting, while at the end of the yellow and beginning of the red, the motorists in front of the displayed traffic light keep accelerating. Why? People can wait for one more vehicle, my time is precious than others, I am getting late. It all comes to ‘I’. When people are short of time to think about themselves, who cares about others! People think - traffic light is a waste of my time; it’s against my honor to wait for others. Some belong to the wary category; they wait only till the time the road in front gets clear.
Before my traffic light turned green, a car in the front must have shifted to the second gear. At the same instance, a bike came rushing forward from the diagonal end, though some seconds were left for his signal to show green. The bike rider must have realized about the miscalculation but the car driver was too focused on the light turning green ahead. In a jiffy, the bike rider was projected few meters ahead. The air bag of the car activated but it became red. I came to know later that the driver of the car was thrown up and a part of his skull was broken into smithereens by the impact.
Seeing a crowd gathering at the scene, like many others I quickly turned the vehicle to take an alternate route to our destinations. The selfish thoughts overpowered any moral thought arising.
The luck which I had wished myself turned to be a real one. Boss did not arrive at office. Boss will never arrive in the office as his head got broken into smithereens a couple of minutes ago.