Cars that run on water

You wake up early in the morning to get to work, well in my case not so early, but still, early enough to make you grumpy and dopey. Amongst the noise and the clatter that the cleaning lady leaves behind and the early morning phone calls on my brothers cellphone, a Monday morning can be quite an uneventful event.

The daily morning dillydally suddenly leaves you rushing to gulp down your cornflakes and apple at a speed only my sisters dog is seen doing. The sudden realization of time, or the lack of it, is like the big bang except, over here time contracts.

I rush down the stairs (I try and do whatever I can to get some exercise) and dodge my way through the million puddles and puddlelets that were born out of last nights rain. I quickly hop skip and jump into my car that by now seems like a sauna.

I drive off to earn my bread and butter and cheese and cornflakes and chicken and ham and... you get the point... So well yes I head out and am greeted by the best thing a morning drive can offer you, a traffic jam. Wait... I forgot to add jam in that list.

Driving without rules in this country gives everyone a sense of freedom and thrill we seem to have taken a liking to since 1947. Freedom is on my mother tongue in the form of all the profanities we hear on the road, as people fight for their “rights” on the road. But again, we all have our own rules... just like Calvin n Hobbes. In this game of Calvinball, who ever proclaims the rule first wins. It's exciting, thrilling and we have complete freedom.

Today, I was in a mood to be calm and composed on my way to work so that I could get to work calm and composed. As I cruised along I saw an oncoming bus trying to cut across my lane. This daring maneuver caused a jam on his side. I chose to be kind and waited patiently till he got his long ass out of the way. I could have cut through and gone ahead, but I knew that would have just resulted in a stalemate and no one would get anywhere. This act of kindness and patience caused traffic to move and slowly everyone was back to normal.

Last night's rain created pools the size of the Red sea. Cars were wading through, bicycles were being carried, and bikes well... were breaking down in the middle of the sea. And am sure they were all praying for moses.

A wise man, and a brother once told me, never drive with your clutch pressed when your car is in such deep water. The explanation was simple, water will get into your engine. I kept those words of wisdom in mind and drove carefully making sure that I used my clutch to a minimum. Unfortunately, not everyone has the loving siblings that I do and most cars decided to call it a day and conked out in the middle. The drivers looked harried and distressed knowing that they would need to step out and dirty their brand new Jimmy Choo's. Traffic was obviously being held up and freedom rage was getting to people. I remained cool and calm and drove through on first gear till I reached the shore.

Since I got ahead, I had to deal with a lot less maniacs on the road since most of them were taken in my the red sea just as the Romans were. As I drove along I noticed that the other side of the road was completely jammed. I figured that the road on that side must have been flooded, and boy was I right. On a regular day, cars would zip on that road and in a minute more than 200+ cars would zip by that area. Today was more like one car in 5 minutes, so you can imagine the backlog. Fancy cars were being converted into jalopy's and were sputtering and stalling all over the place. And then for some crazy reason the honking became worse. I guess, it talking, so much water must have become a talking point amongst all the cars. It's like a murmur, just that it sounds different to us. Rush hour + rain doesn't help, that's why I tell everyone...learn to fly, it's easier.

Oh well! Am not complaining, I still managed to get to work.