But before I enjoy my morning cup of black coffee and newspaper, I have to get there – yes, to the office – I have to get there first and it is not as easy as you think. It is dangerous and it is back-and-what-not breaking and I have to do this every day just to earn a living! But no regrets, after all, one has to put bread on the table at the end of the day and no sacrifice is too big for such a noble quest.
I ride a bull to work. Yessir, a bull – that’s what it is. And this is not your ordinary run-off-the-mill bull. This bull's on a double dose of steroids and it does a thousand push ups every day. It has high blood pressure too. Naturally, it is very strong and is very angry. High BP is not a trivial thing. I think it has a BP of 620/480, I am not sure – maybe more, but it is definitely very high BP and the bull is always very angry. It also happens to be blind! Maybe the high BP shot its eyes or whatever, but it is blind as a bat and doesn’t know where it is going. Then there is this cowboy who rides this bull – he is the only guy who can control it – just about maybe. And I, with some others, ride behind him on the bull to the office each day.
The cowboy… he is a brave man – his name is Yama. He doesn't care for his life, or for that matter, anybody else’s. All he wants to do is to ride this bull and ride it good and ride he does. It is indeed amazing how he can halt this charging bull and actually get it to stop long enough for us to climb on to it. Once on the bull, settled and having secured ourselves to whatever’s worth hanging on to, the rodeo begins. The bull snorts, rears up and takes off with all of us poor souls hanging on to our dear bodies, having flashes of our entire present and past lives, as it charges forward to nowhere and everywhere at the same time, raging with anger, as though someone stuffed 5 kilos of extra spicy chilli-chicken chettinad up its backside…and forgot to follow it up with the promised 2 kilos of curd rice!
So I guess that puts my daily bus ride to the office in the right perspective.
By the way, I have dispensed with the chewing gum since I started traveling to office on this bus, because I can now chew on my heart instead – whatever is left of it, that is! But to give some credit to the bus and its driver, I must admit that riding this bus with this driver has been an 'uplifting' experience (especially when we do the road humps at 60 km/hr). God has visited me no less than 17 times (no kidding!) since I started going by bus. I am sure all that fervent praying is having its beneficial effect on him. God must be feeling really happy with me – I think he loves me! This is great as long as he doesn’t invite me to his heavenly abode…but with lord Yama himself riding this bull, do I have a choice??
(warning!! You will be quartered if you play Adnan Sami's "lift karaa de" when I am around....)
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