#4: The pain and power of commute

“Distance is the only true constraint we have in life”, I blurted out in one of those conversations yesterday. And you will realise the truth in this statement if either you are in a long-distance relationship or commute long distances over work. I have successfully managed to avoid the former, but the latter did get to me eventually.
30–40 minutes is not exactly long distance, definitely not in the gargantuan mess that is Bombay. I can’t possibly fathom the plight of people commuting daily from Virar to Churchgate. The distance haunts me, the precious time lost saddens me, the smell of sweat stirs me and the crooked limbs lull me. I’m in terrific awe of people who manage to do this daily, without a crib, without a sigh and without a cry.
I have been luckier since I don’t have to bear that physical burden, but as Norway taught me, if the problems are not social or physical, they are mental. Truly enough, I worry about the cab taking the longer route, traffic, surge and a dozen other things. But most importantly, I worry about the time spent.
And like a fool trying to solve a puzzle, I have tried all brute force approaches to ‘be more productive.’ I have had my breakfast packed to eat it in the car. I have tried to work on excels but the numbers just start running around the spreadsheet. Sometimes I just stay anxious about the latest mail I read. A friend advised me to use that time to transition from work to personal life, while back from work. So, I try to read the news, some good articles, listen to music but everything turns out to be boring after a while, except one thing.
Nothing has worked better than just dozing off again. The feeling I get while snatching some more sleep from the jaws of time reminds me of Mario running under the dragon in Level 4 of every stage to zoom past to the princess. Thankfully, when I wake up, I don’t have anyone fooling me saying that my princess is in another castle.
Nevertheless, the pain of commute is still there, as a reminder of how tough it is to savour time. It was just simpler to walk from Dorm 33 to CR 7.

