My Love-Hate Relationship with Jakarta’s Traffic
There are days when I am honestly, naively, in love with Jakarta’s traffic. No sarcasm. No irony. Nothing. Just pure love.
The red lights reflecting on the wet concrete streets. The background sound of a city rain and machines humming with strangers’ conversation. Often times, I become captivated with how beautiful the city looks with the Friday night traffic. Though I’m sure I’m probably one in 20 million lives who thinks like this.
A little background story on how I fell in love with the most hated part of this city: I recently started driving by myself daily since late 2014, I also drive a decent Toyota with good air conditioning and adequate audio. I don’t carpool with anyone so I have the backseat empty. I also have flexible work hour at Catalyst, unless it’s our Tuesday weekly meeting at 9 AM.
My love story starts somewhere after 3 months of driving. I realized how productive I can be when being stuck in a really long redlight queue.
I get to sleep at least 30 minutes more
I leave at 8 AM everyday. Wake up at 5.30 for my morning prayer, sleep another 2 hours then get ready for only 15–30 minutes, only to wear work clothes and put on hijab (a little cheat that gets me through any bad hair days, though we also do have bad hijab days). Spending only less than 30 minutes to get ready, I save up time by doing my makeup in the car. Only during red lights, never when actually driving. (Do not try unless you’re a badass like me, or just stupid enough to risk lives). Putting makeup on during those 5-minute traffic in my commute means a good 15 minutes extra sleep in the morning. If I don’t feel like wearing a full-on makeup, I eat breakfast during the red light traffic, which also means more sleep for me.
2. Free karaoke, all day, every day
Ask any of my friends, I fucking love karaoke. My voice is not even nearly tolerable, let alone good, but I love singing. And in the solitude of a soundproofed-car, I can sing all my heart out. All you need is a good 1–2 hour to select the best playlist you can curate, or if you’re on Spotify/Apple Music, you’re pretty much good to go. Sing, sing all you can in the car, because that car that’s been trying to steal your lane, cannot hear your bad rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.
3. Meditation
It takes about one hour in the morning for me to get to the office. Another one hour thirty minutes to come back home from the office after rush hour. Do you know how much idle time I have to reflect on life, think about the present moment, visualize on what I want, and basically have the time to breathe? Plenty. I always do my morning meditation during my commute, which is about a 15 minute breathing exercise and about 100 fire breaths. This is more than enough to get me through the day. Meditation doesn’t mean you need to be completely still with shut eyes and quite surroundings, it means being blissful and to always find inner happy place despite all circumstances.
4. Practicing your gut instinct
I’m a straight on INFJ. I feel, I don’t think. On days where I feel that my guesstimates are game on, I practice my intuition to find which route is best suited. Like a little engine in my mind, determining traffic in Jakarta can sometimes be a fun (please note that my definition of fun may not be the same as yours), algorithmic game that also sharpens my inner intuition. But ofcourse there are easier tools to use like Waze or Google Maps, but sometimes relying on your instincts can be thrilling.
But of course, to every yin there is yang, and to every love, there is hate. A speck of hate, really.
1. Sitting is the new smoking
Sitting on your butt for more than an hour is not good. Not good for your digestion, for your posture, for any thing really. That’s why it’s so important to stretch rigorously after and before any drive, making sure your body is ready still.
2. ROAD RAGE
There are people out there, who were born to drive slowly in front of you, or impatiently behind you. People who do not know how to use the left or right signal. People who are created just to annoy your morning commute, and probably your rest of the day. But the silver lining is that, I took on meditation because I realized I am a much angrier person every time I am behind my wheels. All those people who led me to rage, to anger and to all the curse words available in the English language — has also somehow brought me to the path of peace, love and joy.
3. Time is of the essence
This one can be contradicting. I do save up time by meditating, getting ready, eating breakfast, but I still need to allocate at least 2 hours before any scheduled event. One and a half hour if I’m feeling adventurous. But again, being early for anything is really better than being late. There is no such thing as fashionably late in business, you are disrespecting whoever you are meeting if you are late. Having to adapt to Jakarta’s traffic makes me even more aware of never wasting anyone’s time. Again, another love point for Jakarta’s traffic.
Writing this makes me realize even more that, the traffic can sometimes a be a blessing in disguise. I do understand that this piece won’t resonate with most of you, but do try to see the beauty in the every day reality you see.
If you ever want to share the same love as me towards Jakarta’s traffic, come and carpool with me, while we meditate and karaoke through city’s hustle and bustle.
