Pune is such a beautiful place when it rains. Scenic hill stations like Mahabaleshwar, Lonavala, Khandala and Matheran are hardly a couple of hours drive from the city. The outskirts of the city itself is surrounded by hills which look beautiful during monsoon. Our office located at Hinjewadi presents some of the beautiful sights. The best part of my monsoon weekday is my morning commute to my workplace. The pleasure of some breathtaking views accentuated by the continuous drizzle/rain makes the 40 minutes of the morning commute enjoyable.
The worst part of the day? It is commuting through the same scenic route in the evening. The time our shuttle starts is the same time all the shuttles from all the companies start operating. And there is one narrow road that’s the spine of this route. Yesterday was worst. It took 2 hours to reach my place which usually takes about 40 minutes for a distance of 15 odd kms. I started sleeping in the bus and owning to the trained biological clock when I woke up after about 45 mins, we had covered only 2kms. All the vehicles were inching forward – literally. I got reminded of Al Pacino’s inspiring speech in the movie ‘Any Given Sunday’ with the phrase ‘Claw that inch’ sounding dramatically in my ears repeatedly.
My phone battery had drained, my ears were already sore of listening to music and mind completely numb out of boredom. I did the unthinkable. I came up with the below poem or couplet or scribbling or trash, however you want to call it.
Tired eyes and ears sore,
Silent neighbor a total bore;
Only solace is the hillside view,
That’s the hinjewadi traffic for you.
It’s just that my patience was torn,
And a sub-par poet was born!