For those who don’t already know, the bart(Bay Area Rapid Transit) is like the metro
or the subway which a lot of people, like me, working in San Francisco (city)
but living in the bay area (east bay, south bay etc) take to get to work.
My day begins with a journey in the bart. I spend about one
hour at home before this - out of which I am aware of my surroundings for about
just 40 min usually.
I read books, catch
up on news, I am learning a few devotional songs- stuff I never did in the past
7 years. But if I take the bart during peak traffic hours then one of my favorite
hobbies is observing the people around me. I realized these people can affect my
mood (don’t know if this happens to you). A biker who is tracking his exercise can
gives me a little extra motive to show up at the gym, a passenger who offers a
seat to an old / pregnant lady can be the reason I later appreciate a street
performer with a dollar or two, a small kid who observes everything with
excitement – the sky, a post, graffiti – makes me realize the world is pretty (and
that she is blissfully unaware of a lot of things), somebody typing away
fervently reminds me of ‘that’ bug in my code that needs fixing.
Talking to distant relatives, applying make-up, sending
emails out, reading novels or newspapers, listening to music, watching over
kids, observing people observing you all become part of a bart-rider’s life!
It is not just the journey in the morning, on the way back,
I relax (mentally and physically) by listening to some good music and figure
out how my evening should pan out. A jog, some groceries would be my plan
earlier, but now I know which trail to take and what curry to make!
What is/was your journey to the office like?
4 comments:
Commute time is catch up time for me, when I chat with family and friends. But lately, my commute is significantly down as I work from home more and I DO NOT miss the long hours sitting in the car.
I enjoyed that, Mruduls. My commute is short and nothing to comment about, other than: 'Thank God for small mercies!' But I did use to enjoy the 45 minute bus ride in Bangalore, mainly because it gave me uninterrupted reading time.
Used to travel to Nellore for teaching in Narayana.As soon is ticket is purchased, doze off and get up only in Nellore. Helped to catch up with much needed sleep and rest.One day dozed off even before ticket.Conductor was shouting "some body ticket".With a sheepish grin paid the fare ,went back to sleep.
Another thing is there were "Sunday fathers" those days.They go away early in the morning,return late night.The children see them only on Sunday.
Nice post ra Mruduls, enjoyed it.
And English is not bad at all - no typos at all this time! But the penultimate sentence might perhaps take some corrections by Narsim babai's standards - a 'have been' might enter there, and also a 'would' - check it out...:)
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