Toll takes a toll!

Finally after a long wait and speculation, missed deadlines, land aquisition tussles,VIP's time crunch, decisions on the toll charges the 32 lane toll plaza and Delhi-Gurgaon expressway was opened to public two days back.

Not everyone is a Ratan Tata who delivered what was promised. NHAI and DS contructions certainly dont believe in it. The 15 min drive from Delhi to Gurgaon is far from reality. After all the hullaboo around it has given commuters(me being one) a harried time.

Day 1 : Monday Morning, High volume of traffic, vehicles piling up on the highway to pay toll. I had to wait for a good 30 minutes before i could get to the toll booth. The vehicles moved with snail pace. Seeing the traffic pile up in the rush hours, the vehicles were allowed to go without paying toll. Reached office almost an hour late.

While going back in the evening, same scenario as the morning, with one change. There were toll collectors in the middle of traffic collecting toll like balloon,flower and fruit sellers who come down knocking at the car windows. Innovative, yet time consuming. I reached home 30 mins later than the usual time.

Day 2 : We decided to avoid the toll plaza totally, so took a detour towards Kapashera, the old gurgaon-delhi highway. The roads are narrow, with too many cycles and pedestrians. But atleast our car kept moving. Plus, we paid no toll :D. Also, saved on burning a lot of fuel that otherwise would only make holes in the ozone and our pockets. Reached late by 10 mins, but thats okay. Took the same route in the evening, avoided the traffic at the toll.

Today, things were better, we took the expressway - people followed the correct lanes, handing out exact change, runners who collected toll if there was a traffic pile-up, we used the tag/smart card to cross the toll. Reached office on time.

I guess, after a few initial hiccups, a change in the operational strategy, commuters opting for smart cards/tags, and following correct lanes;the travel time would go down as expected bringing much needed relief to people.

P.S. If you're not on the driver's seat, traffic jams give one ample time to do small things like
Calling up a long-lost friend or making a to do list for the impending tasks or knitting something or even peeling off peas or playing cards or ogling around to locate a hot chick/due or playing 'Aryabhatta' in analysing the registeration numbers of cars or hold ur partners hand if she/he is sitting next to you and so much more .My imagination is running wild.... ;)

Happy Commuting!

Crossroads

Last few months, most of friends & aquaintances have had a change in their relationship status. People getting in and out of marriages has become so common. For every 2-3 marriages/engagements i hear of, i get to hear of a couple headed for splitsville. i wonder is it some underlying balance nature is trying to maintain.

Discussed it with M, his reaction 'Fat leti hai yeh sochke kabhi kabhi' was funny yet true! 'Yeh' referrred to the divorces happening around all of us. Another friend M commented, 'BC...saala samajh nahi aata, ho kya jata hai!!'

Seems all of us infected with the 'More-is-Less' virus, and relationships are dying as a result of the infection.None of us are content with what we have - jobs, salaries, clothes, cars. This discontentment is spilling onto the non-material belongings - our relationships with our partners. Rigidity with what we want, i feel, is the rampant cause for relationships being at crossroads. Compromises/sacrifice no longer exists in our dictionaries.

Sansui's tagline 'Better than the best' also seems to have come up from the fact, that nothing meets our level of expectation, and how we feel there is always something better to look out for. The bar of the expectation is rising only upwards, with little tolerance and leeway for the other.

Couples seem happy and seems they will always be together. Then, out of the blue, one of the pair plays the divorce card, leaving all those involved wondering what knocked them off the fence. I too, have been knocked off trying to figure out what fails in the relationship???