Saturday, February 25, 2012

Toofan Diaries!!

Hey friends!

For those of you, who were left a little discombobulated (*yea, this word does exist!!*) by the word "toofan"- I am not talking about the Hindi phrase for a destructive phenomenon of nature (LOL, I prefer to go as per the title of my blog!), but I am talking about this outstanding machine that runs on the highways of Gujarat! Here "outstanding" is both-a compliment and a satire (as you would expect, ha!).

Well, Toofan is a nick name for a car named TRAX by Force motors. Like the famous cheesy line a Bollywood actor would say to the lead lady-"Mera naam hai Vikram, lekin pyar se log mujhe Viky bulate hain." (*Deplorable*). Talking of the Toofan, it really does take the highways here by storm. It is used by the owners as a taxi and it is the undisputed king. You will find Toofans here, Toofans there, Toofans everywhere. The working class will be in deep trouble if the Toofan drivers go on strike someday.

Why it's outstanding? It's enormous (5m long), it's solid and you can run it almost anywhere.
And why the satire? This one's entirely attributable to the drivers. You will never find two Toofans looking alike, from outside and inside. They have "modified" their vehicles to such extent that the vehicles must be going through mental depression. And the worst part, they keep filling in passengers and they keep filling it till there is no space left for anyone to move any limb. Yes, it took three missed call from my BOSS, before i could pick one some days ago. There are 10 people (yes, 10 PEOPLE, thin and fat!!) in the back, 4 in the middle and 4 in the front. While you can very well imagine the torture and agony that we go through in the middle and back seats, you cannot imagine what's going on in the front seat. The guy sitting (it's always a guy!) next to the driver (second from right and third from left) has to bring his right leg all the way round from the left of the gear to the right of it (Keep your mental GPS on for the directions!).  The gear positioning is such that, the you cant help but pray to the Almighty to save your balls in the first and third gears. You swear to God that you will never sit on this seat again if he saves you today. But...... Anyways, you can't help but give a devilish grin looking at this poor soul. You feel so happy that you are not in his position. That you are here, and he is there.. HAHA. But... ;-)

Keep track of my Toofan diaries. I will keep bringing them up. They are interesting and they are many!
Till then, Happy Observing!!

Ciao!





Saturday, February 18, 2012

I took a day off! \m/



Well, the job had been a bit too boring this week (*a bit more than it usually is*). Also, i was in desperate need of some good sleep and peace around me. Well, it's not exactly peaceful around here too, but it's still better.

Now, you must be thinking what the hell does that mean "taking off on a Saturday!! everyone has an off on a goddamn Saturday!!". I don't blame you my friend. I blame myself. I feel like laughing at the scenario.. you know that grin.. carefully dressed up with sarcasm; sarcasm reflecting from your every single sparkling, carefully "colgated" or "close-upped" or "pepsodented" or "whatevered" tooth. *On that note, I prefer colgate.*

Enough of the odontology, let's talk about the scenario. Well, I am a civil engineer, sadly. *sigh*
And only after taking up my first job i found out that civil engineers are an entirely "different" breed. In India, civil engineers are people who work their asses out 365 days a year (oh no, don't you dare think we get an off in a leap year!), 12 hours a day or may be more depending on the project, and we do all this happily and religiously without a single thought about the human rights! (*false pride*).

No, no, no... you are going in the wrong direction. We don't get O.T. for that. Haha, we are the lowest paid category among engineers, with the least number of paid leaves. We are doing that just because it's been like that always in India and I don't see a revolution coming too.

While all you lucky people are partying in a club on a Friday night with the best girls around , we are resting our stomachs on the 37 mm beds (12 mm ply+25 mm mattress) given to us by our generous employers to give some rest to our over-worked bodies and we are imagining how life must be in "your world", "your wonderland", and we think about the excruciating work we have to put our mind and bodies through tomorrow again, and we think about the night cubs, the parties, the fashion, and we feel somewhat jealous of you people, and we think...


Alarm Clock rings!!! "Oh God.. not again..I hate this job.. I hate this alarm tone.. i will change it today.. and we think about the work...

Snooze!! " Okay, i am getting up, i can't afford to miss the bus."