#MetroDiary40: Holiday Season

The holiday-fever is at its peak! So much so that even those who are not on holiday are getting affected. Take me for example. And this is what I did yesterday. I decided to walk from my office to the nearest Magenta line station, but realised after covering a good kilometre that the station is a bit too far. I got hold of an auto and agreed to pay more than I would pay on a normal day and ended up reaching the wrong station. He did not take me to the wrong station, but it was I, who gave the wrong destination. Anyway, it did not end there. I decided to take the train to go to the nearest point where the lines intersect, but in my hurry, boarded the train to the opposite direction and ended up going back to where I had started! Back to square one, that is! So much for walking! Between ranting to a friend on how stupid I found myself doing all that and appreciating the setting sun, I ran to the opposite platform in the next stop. Now that's what I call the holiday spirit, you see! So what if I can not enjoy the setting sun in Goa or Udaipur or Varanasi, I can still look at it in my dusty city as it hides behind endless buildings and a lotus shaped one in particular. 

Metro is almost empty in the morning hours these days. The ones who travel, endlessly talk about parties, cakes, presents that their secret Santa (the official one) brought the previous day. I suspect many of them are travellers in their heads like I am. They are not in that metro compartment in that moment. They are already in some other part of the country or world, with someone else, smelling the winter sun, squinting their eyes and laughing more than usual. 

The other day, I met these two girls standing near the door. They were checking their lunch-boxes and (it seemed like) were working on them. They were not eating, but was just working as if to correct the balance. They were balancing the number of breads, sharing the vegetables with the keenness of professionals. I looked at them and thought, how beautiful it would be to get to balance what you have got in life, like that! We often end up with a bit more spice or sweet or salt, in our lives' boxes, it would be lovely to adjust it a little bit before the hour to savor it arrives. When your tea gets sweeter than usual, let your friend pour some of his sugar-less tea in your cup :) And Voila! All is well again!
Well! as you can see I am speaking pretty holiday-ishque, myself! Getting entangled in imagery and metaphors!  And I suspect that reading these would definitely not help you in sitting at your desk and concentrating on excel sheets like my colleague Anil does. He often gives me an exasperated smile when I speak to him non-stop and he almost itches to go back to his sheets. And coming to excel, he definitely knows his sheet (pun intended) better than mine ;) 

This is also the season to travel for most Indians living in big cities like Delhi. People often feel holed up in the city that is almost trapping you like a mouse. It gets you in anyway with the bait of food, much like the real mouse-trap and if you have not learnt to take your breaks, demand them, and make the city hand them over to you at regular intervals in the form of walks, theatre, music, painting, food, you end up feeling like a mouse in a trap ind

eed. Then you would want to go out of the city at the drop of a hat! and come back sad. Almost dejected. You will then sit middle of nowhere! Your head lodged firmly in the fold of your elbow. You would probably still dream of the home you left behind. The mountains. The meadows. The streams. The blue sky. 

See! I told you it is a bad idea to read my blog in this holiday season. It will not help you in concentrating in your mundane jobs. But who knows it may help you travel around the world in your head even when you are stuck at one place  like the proverbial palm tree that Rabindranath once described or set your lunch boxes a bit better this holiday season! Do that ,while I prepare to meet the greatest admirer of the metro blogs tomorrow :) 

What did you think, eh? It is only you would would have all the fun or what?