Life...just another day

It's the night before your early morning travel, you make sure dinner is on time to get blessed with necessary sleep hours that you have not been able to achieve for the whole week.

At 8:45 you start telling your family that you are going to bed and everyone appreciates it. Just when you feel that you have nailed it today, a deliberate soft voice hits your ears with a request to do that small task which is absolutely necessary for the next day!

Gathering all your courage you say "no" and boom! complete silence follows.

You know the task is important, and a few minutes later you break the silence by accepting to do it.

It takes a good one hour but you are okay, at least you played your part well for the family. Now the small preparation for next morning starts...a short trip doesn't need much time to prepare but oh, the shirt you decided to wear isn't ironed!

You try looking at options but nothing else looks good as the mind has already seen you at the destination wearing "that" shirt. Everything else is so dull, you wonder why you got so many useless clothes and wardrobe needs clearing. Final decision, the shirt needs to be ironed.

Solo travels are light (please do not misread that family travels mean more luggage, I never said that and I know my wife will read this) so no luggage but where is the favourite overnighter? It's in the other room where parents are sleeping, you go softly but parents are awake as they know you are preparing for the next morning and ask if you need any help, you smile, say thanks, good night and swiftly come out with the bag asking parents to sleep.

Now your shirt is done and the overnighter is ready with all necessary stuff. Finally the moment to go to bed...well, it's 11:00 pm already! Web check-in is done but hey, did you get the mobile boarding pass on your phone? You check for the boarding pass and notice a few more messages waiting for your response. Finally, at 11:30 you keep the phone by the side setting the alarm to 3:45 am (flight is at 6:45)

You wake up from a deep sleep looking to stop that alarm quickly so that others are not disturbed. You wonder why that melodious alarm tune you selected sounds so bad early in the morning!

Well you stop the alarm and remain in bed for those 5 more precious minutes.

You give your regular trusted cabby a wakeup call and things are perfect. You are on time but slightly sleep deprived, you don't feel it at the moment as there are things to do.

It takes a few extra minutes in the shower as your body is a little slower than the mind. It would have been better if you could sleep at the time you wanted but it's okay till now.

Dressed up, 10 minutes behind schedule, but you have more buffer so no worries.

Before putting on the shoes and a final check on the essentials you make another call to your trusted cabby but there is no answer. Some will get extremely worried here but an optimist will think that the cabby's phone is in the car and he is stretching and yawning standing outside the car.

You want to make sure your optimism is real and look outside the window. But oh! utter surprise there is no car and you immediately know it is one of those odd days. You look at the time and gear up to make it to the airport on scheduled time.

Now the mind is working much faster and ignores everything else. One of your parents is awake and ready to wish you a good day, in my case generally my mother. You greet without showing any signs of stress to keep things normal for others and avoid unnecessary worry that parents (both yours as well as your children's) always carry in bulk.

The fun starts now, you are trying to book a cab on minimum two applications with an effort to balance the right price, time and comfort.

After a decent 10 minutes your cab is confirmed. It shows 18 minutes to reach the pickup point and your mind calculates while looking at the driver's rating, car model etc. You again think it would have been better to wake up at 3:30 instead of 45 or spend less time in the shower. Well, as per calculation you are still safe to make it on time (without the extra optimism), of course the walk getting into the airport and to the boarding gate will be brisk.

You call the cabby and he assures he is on the way, you then say bye to mom with the same calm face showing no stress, partly true at this time.

Now you are at the main entrance/lift lobby of your house waiting for the cab. It's been a few minutes and the app is showing 10 minutes to reach. You step out of the building to save those few minutes.

At this time, you have nothing to do but just wait for the cab. You feel the pleasant morning breeze and remind yourself of that resolution of taking regular morning walks. Well, I must start doing this. Engrossed in thoughts you look at the morning activities around you, the newspaper guy, vegetables vendor, milk vendor and early morning walkers. Everyone looks high on energy (lucky people, all would have slept on time or they are everyday in the same rush as you are today). Everything looks so good early in the morning, you will try too.

It's been a few minutes and you check the phone again, expecting the cab to be near. You walk a few more steps towards the road as time is running out. Voila! The cabby has cancelled after making you wait for a good 15 minutes.

You hurry to book another cab and this time the price and comfort are secondary; you need the cab asap.

A savior accepts your request and is expected to reach in 7 minutes. Your mind quickly calculates there is still time to make it to the flight. You are positive but anxious too. To save time you are now out on the main road so that the cabby doesn't make that last turn wrong or enters from the wrong gate.

You call the new cabby and speak your most pleasing words making sure the person is looking forward to serving you. At the same time, your voice is firm enough trying to make sure no surprise this time (you cannot afford it)

Hey did you realize its 5+10+10+18+7=50 minutes delay till now and that's why there is no room for further delay. The airport is so busy with long queues these days.

Finally your cab comes and you quickly jump in reading your OTP aloud. The cab starts and you check the time again. You put the destination on your map, while it is showing on the cab app but you still want to double check, you never know when google will customize maps by the person looking at it. After checking and comparing all routes you are now sure of being on the right track. No time to lose.

This cabby is driving well, speed and control is absolutely the same as you prefer when going out with family in leisure (no I don't drive fast when alone, I never said that). Unfortunately, this is not your leisure trip and speed is preferred.

You are stuck now, as you want to ask for increasing speed but hesitating as it's not the right thing to say. Your conscience wins and you decide to keep quiet. You decide to go the subtly passive way, keep looking at the phone and driver's phone map, a smart driver guesses the stress on the customer's face and the smartest one increases speed without asking you anything. You put your cabby on the same test and wish to see his smartest version come alive.

While the cabby was on a test for smartness, another car was honking from behind and you think it must be due to the super speed of your cab. If I was you, I would also wish the speeding honking car is going to the airport and will offer me a lift. Am I an optimist or a dreamer? And what about you?

The honking car crosses you (I would have checked if there is space to sit, will you?). The faster driver gave some gestures to your cabby while crossing but these were generous expressions (not like the other bad ones given when you drive slow in front of the 007's found on our roads, by the way, which capital has more 007's political or financial? I guess equal but one has a mission and the other is just trying to run with time. The gesture given by the other driver was different, maybe like there is something wrong with your vehicle.

Oh! Is it so? No way, you are already late.

Your mind forces you to think otherwise and try to believe that the gestures were not informational but the bad ones for driving slow. You ignore and wish your cabby also does the same.

At the same time your conscious self screams from inside that the car should be stopped to check. Thankfully, cabby breaks the silence saying that he noticed the other driver indicating something and your conscious jumps to say "please stop and check the car".

You stop and there it is, a beautifully flat tire. You keep calm looking at the time and tell your optimism to remain high as it is not coming naturally this time.

Things are happening quickly and you tell your cabby loud and clear now that you are getting late so that he now works with speed on both the wheels, tire as well as driving.

Your mind gives the option to take another cab, time checked and booked one cab, it shows 7 minutes and here your cabby is working fast, mind says it will take the same time, new cab cancelled. After all, what if the new cabby drives even better than the current one? At least the current one now knows you are late and he needs to drive fast.

The jack fails four times, there is a problem with the jack and it can't lift the car. Oops! It seems the flight will be missed. Oh! Forgot to tell you the time...this whole thing has taken 15 minutes and it's 5:35 am now with a 25 minutes' drive remaining to the airport and flight at 6:45. Thankfully you travel light and there is only cabin luggage. Boarding pass is ready to be flashed on your phone, you have kept it open on top of all other applications.

Mind is working at a high speed on all fronts, calculating both things, options to reach as well as the loss when you can't. At present, you are looking for stones, bricks by the road side to help lift the car but they can only work when the jack gives some elevation which is not happening. Mind thinks that if I had gone to the gym regularly, I could have lifted the car to put the bricks underneath (optimist/dreamer?) You see, the mind is at its best under pressure but there are no solid bricks on the road and jack refuses to work.

Savior number two, a local cabby stops by and agrees to take you to the airport. Asking for more than double the price, you are annoyed at the cunning guy and conscience tells you to bear the air ticket loss but not pay this person. You refuse.

You look at your original cabby who confirms that the other one is taking advantage. Decision with conscience remains firm.

The other cabby hears angry refusal and checks distance on phone or at least pretends to do so, gives you a discount and your conscience immediately agrees to this settlement. You say bye and all the best to first one and hop inside the second cab (actually fourth, the first two did not come but need to be counted otherwise the story lacks emotion)

This cabby drives so well, just like how we used to in our twenties (oh were you sober then also, then you may even not relate with this story, anyway I will continue), you thank this new fast cabby silently as open praise might result in incentive expectations.

On your way the old cabby calls to inform you that he was able to fix the jack. So, is fate not on my side today? No decisions yet as an optimist you want to test till your efforts last) You respond to the first cabby. It's good but you are obviously far away so it doesn't make a difference. The cabby nicely wishes you a good with explicit mention to the troubles faced but best wishes from this point forward. We will see what happens in the end.

You report the car breakdown to the cab company and ensure that there is no deduction to the cabby, he was a good guy after all.

Your narration with the cab Company and previous cabby is heard by the new cabby. He is smart and realizes there is another way to make money from this "generous" customer, He explains good long reasons for why he asked for extra money. You partly believe and decide to give him some tip over the agreed amount.

Airport reached, it's 6:01 am, you have 19 minutes to enter, pass security and reach the boarding gate.
You spot the shortest queue, curse the slow pace of people, and get in. You run to security (thanks to no requirement of a printed boarding pass).

Long queues at security. Savior number 3 arrives - this is one from the airport staff who notices that your face is not calm and guides you to the shortest queue. You thank him wholeheartedly.

You are in the queue and your phone rings, unknown number but this time you pick, guessed it right, it's the airline, giving you the final call. You speak your best and say you are in the security queue. The voice on the other side is firm and says they will close as per time...you know pleading doesn't work here and hey that's not you.

Security done and you run to the gate in your formal shoes, the gate is at a different level, you get into the elevator with 2 minutes remaining in your grace of 5. Everything looks so slow, the lift door takes so much time to close. Oh no! why is the door opening again, more people want to get in but why in your lift, you think.

Finally, the gate is not far from the elevator and you are able to make it in the 5th minute a few seconds before the end of grace. The boarding gate person was not lying about time, it was 6:25 and you were the last one to board. The worst looking opportunist cabby had actually saved your flight...yes, you did tip him over the agreed amount (optimist thought was telling you will catch the flight)

Remember the first cabby wished you good luck from this point onwards and I think you always had it from the beginning of this story, it's the way you read this and your life. Our actions and words make others lucky too...as it happened in the above story.

Water at last in the craft.