I normally switch on Google Maps to avoid traffic jams and take alternative routes.Like any other day, I conveniently took a left turn, blindly trusting the credibility of Google Map, ignoring my wife’s advise of taking a right instead of Google Map’s left; and came at loggerheads with a bumper to bumper traffic. We were stuck in an immovable traffic, reaching at the same point we would have reached had I paid heed to my wife’s advise. However, a declaration from her stating she would have been far happier if we were struck in the same traffic if I took her favored ‘right’, brought any scope of further argument, at end.
Lesson 1 – While in a traffic jam, trust your wife’s sense of direction than that of Google Maps’!
Its 7 pm and we have been stuck in that traffic for an hour. We begin to get worried about our little one and I request my wife to walk home. She is prompt enough to refute the idea point blank as A. It is not safe to walk home all alone and B. it is not safe to walk home all alone in that perfect dress.
At 8 pm we have only moved 10 meters and my patience has run out leaving me with a parched throat. I suggested I walk to a fuel station nearby and get a bottle of water to which I was again encountered with a sharp ‘NO!’ How could I be insensitive enough to leave her alone in the car in that traffic jungle? I suppressed my guilt of putting her in that position and my terrible thirst with a shake of head as if that traffic jam was all my fault.
At 9 pm, our daughter calls saying she misses us. Set aside the inconvenience of a traffic jam and a husband dying of thirst, a mother’s love struck her with complete force and she desperately got out of the car to walk home in that very dress!
Lesson 2 – It is safe when your wife tells it is safe to walk home
It is 9:30 pm my wife has reached home and I have moved only another 10 meters. My daughter is not willing to sleep and at this pace it seems I will not reach home till midnight. My wife asks me to use my skills of driving in a rain-hit Indian traffic and come home as soon as possible as our daughter has refused to sleep without her daddy.
Lesson 3 – Follow the crowd or find a solution?
I requested the bus next to me to try and take the right turn, the same suggested by my wife. He agreed provided I could convince the rest of the six cars in front of my car and a mini truck in front of that bus to turn right, with no room for any other cars or bikers to get in between. To my respite, the coordination was executed with perfection and I had successfully steered the car right.
Lesson 4 – If there is a will, there is a way – we all know but forgot sometimes.
It is 10:00 pm now, and before I could hit more traffic jam, my better sense of judgement advised me to promptly park my car and walk on the pedestrian pathway which was flooded with bikers, rubbernecking and giving me hate looks as If I was blocking their way. Amidst all this hustle bustle, the true heroes were the traffic cops, who despite all madness, had not given up.
Lesson 5 – Respect the traffic cops.
Conclusion – Take an Uber or Ola (On Demand Taxi) during monsoons 🙂