All in a day's travel.....

Today was one of those days. Mid-month and have already reached the quota of 3 late marks. Did not want to get more late marks and what happens? No bus or auto from Powai to Kanjurmarg. Finally managed to halt an auto which was trying to be invisible and fly past me. At the railway station, just missed the regular train and the next one was in no mood to follow immediately. So after about 10 minutes, the beauty from Kalyan chugs in elegantly. The crowd has swelled in the past 10 minutes and my skill of getting into the train while people are still trying to alight was put to test. Managed to get in but my water bottle had to face the brunt. I could hear the crack of plastic, checked to see few dents in the bottle but it survived, no leaks. Women of every size and shape were trying to get past me, don’t know where to. I was busy trying not to lose my foothold for the next half an hour. And also attempting to read Hanuman Chalisa at the same time. God Hanuman came to rescue and got a place to sit, fourth seat. Tried to listen to FM radio above the din of women exchanging pleasantries, the kind which you can hear only in Mumbai trains. At the Masjid Station, an Ambarnath fast passing alongside whistled at our Kalyan beauty , which had the Kalyan beauty all offended and decided not to budge for atleast 10 minutes. Finally, it crawled into VT station a good 20 minutes late. No, there was no hope of getting the regular muster today but alteast hoped to make it to office in decent time. That was really an optimistic thought because when I reached the bus stop outside VT station to catch a bus to Churchgate, a Ladies Special serpentine queue was waiting to greet me. After few more precious minutes the bus did arrive but when you are in a hurry, all the red lights conspire to work against you. As it is, there are 7 signals between VT and Churchgate, a distance of 10 minutes and every single time the bus reaches a signal it has to turn RED. Felt like screaming ‘don’t give me red’. But the conductor did not look like a kindly soul so decide to keep my mouth shut. Hopped out of the bus at my stop and broke into a sprint. Reached office a good half an hour late. Phew!!! No boss yet. Switched on my desktop and spread the important looking documents all over my desk to give a work in progress look. Got coffee from the vending machine and geared up for a day’s work ahead.