Murphy’s Law “What can go wrong, will go wrong” has a nice ring to it except when it hits. Then you have no option but to be frustrated and think “come on, this can’t get worse” and it would just go worse. It hit me today, just as I was about to leave to visit a few friends. I was in Koramangla, Bangalore and as I was about to leave the Bangalore weather gods decided it was time to rain. As always happens when it rains, cabs of Ola and Uber go into surge faster than the droplets of rain.
So the smart ass in me decided to take an Ola Share. Destination is 30 minutes away as per Google maps, which by now has got hang of the Bangalore traffic and gives pretty good estimates. Despite a plethora of cabs in the one minute vicinity, Ola gives me one in that’s about 10 minute away. Fifteen minutes later the cab arrives and I get in. Google Maps shows a nice little shortcut that we take only to see it is blocked off due to repairs. A round of asking and we reach Ejipura Signal from where a right turn means my destination is 7 Km away.
But we need to take right, for there is another rider who is 1.5 km away. We navigate the mains and crosses like a pro(Thanks to Google Maps), pick the passenger and we are on the way. We reach the place where I was waiting about 20 minutes earlier and this time smarted by the goof-up last time we don’t take the shortcut but the well-known road to Ejipura Signal.
Oh we need to take right again, for my co-passenger’s destination is 3 km to the right and being nearer will be dropped off first which makes sense. Another 15 minutes later we reach the destination but then the person doesn’t have change and needs to get it from home. Change is retrieved pretty soon and we move forward when a person lets us know it is a dead-end ahead.
Now we need to turn but the road is narrow for bikes and cars are parked on it. We move ahead but no clearing in view to take a turn. Finally we find a kind soul who lets us use his parking lot to take the turn. As I think, finally now we can move, we see another car behind has had stalled in its attempt to turn. That car is a hatchback and can manage to turn but the driver is not very experienced and struggling not to hit a bike and still turn. His friends help him out by pushing the bike out somehow and my driver who shouts off some expert advice. He turns finally and his friends hop in and all is well in the world.
Or is it, the bike they pushed has now blocked our path and as we are about to get down to remove the obstacle, rain returns in full force. Luckily the owner arrives in the nick of time and saves me the trouble of pushing a bike in the rain. We start our journey again but we have not yet got out of that narrow road when a reversing water tanker greets us and we are forced to get back. We can only watch as the tanker provide water to the houses in the area. Ten minutes later a car pulls out of the roadside parking and my driver with the expertise of driving cabs in Bangalore for years manages to squeeze the car out. So after just over an hour in the car and further from my destination then when I started, frustration is enough to start writing this blog.
The rain and traffic ensured the journey was longer and in the next fifty minutes of traveling and writing, my destination is near. Oh wait, why has my driver taken a wrong turn. “Sorry Sir, galti ho gaya”(Sorry Sir, it was a mistake). We take a U-turn but as Murphy’s law would have it right turns are prohibited from there and we have to go to the next signal which is over a kilometer away and the road is full of traffic.
Finally have got through the signal to get back on the correct route and it is now over 2 hours into the journey. There are no more hiccups as I reach my destination five minutes later. Rain has also stopped. Probably all is well now. Or is it….