Lockdown ease?...Traffic tease!!

The lockdown restrictions have eased and so, another nightmare starts......Traffic Jams....Again!!!

Not going to lie, I loved the arrangements made in the past one year by the companies by allowing their employees to work from home.

The sky was blue, the air became fresh and the fog of pollution lifted from our lives as India, along with the rest of the world had been locked down due to coronavirus.

The streets were empty; granted so were the pockets but that emptiness had a soothing tone to it.

No blowing of unnecessary horns in the streets, no burning of gasoline and therefore, no worries about the fumes, the world was cosying into the absence of "Traffic Updates" which became like a ritual before venturing out of our homes.

Waking up minutes before the start of office to clock in the attendance from the comfort of one's bed; the whole kitchen and pantry to your disposal, breakfast of the champions really did have a true ring to it.

Some of the conglomerates and multi national corporations have announced to follow the ongoing protocol of work, some have informed of the possibility, but the small business owners still have to hustle on the streets, making ends meet and meeting endgames.

Nowadays, going to the petrol station to feed your vehicle is a costly affair with petrol prices moving past the Rs 100 mark; and so I propose that car pooling should be adhered to seriously.

Everything has its own perks and menaces, but it cannot be ruled out that our absence on the streets made a huge impact on decreasing pollution levels all over; mother nature felt oxygenated as the healing had just begun.

But as all good things must come to an end, our 1 year long slumber also must.

Get ready to start waking up early and hustle your way through the barrage of people to reach your "work station" ;

Where in, someone would definitely be cutting you off,

That same model car owner is better at finding empty spaces on the commute than you.

Indicators should be removed from the cars as the majority of the drivers on the road always forget to use them, instead just follow their heart and hope that the oncoming vehicle will telepathically know their intention to take a turn.

Talking of turns, you would , without fail, notice that a car on the extreme right HAS to make the next left turn just seconds after cutting you off.

At first, you would be polite in addressing the rash driving, but with increasing frustration of witnessing the same thing day in and day out, you too would become one of them...the proud Rash Driver whose sole aim is to reach its destination as if their life depended on it.

Lane driving?? What is that?? Never heard of it!...like the many other traffic rules that everyone squanders over the minute they find themselves late for work.

The joy does not stop just there, after reaching your office; small triggers are waiting to put your good mood off as these are unavoidable. Some of them being as follows:

Those manipulative team meetings where you really cannot hide by turning off that webcam. (bet you like those zoom meetings now);

Realising that those small tea breaks really are small and catching up with colleagues is the only refreshing activity unlike before where Facebook was just a tab away and had never been logged out for months;

That coffee stain on that nice shirt is enough to embarrass you for the rest of the day let alone going through the whole day in your jammies today;

Hmmm...lunchtime really would just be about fuelling yourself to go through the rest of the fantastic day, forget about that fresh homemade humble food prepared by someone loving and caring from the family.

That menacing peak hour rush to reach home around night just enough to spoil your mood to do something fun by consuming all your energy.

Those fixed 6-8 hours of sleep to remind you that you are a part of this rate race but you are mostly just a well defined robot.

So enjoy your "work from home" while you can as you never know when this fairy-tale would come to an end and you find yourself behind the steering wheel of your car as an angry, frustrated maniac; not to forget, stuck in a traffic jam!!