Driving me crazy!!

There perhaps was something providential in my radio playing 'you drive me cra-e-a-e-zy' today. After a whole year of staying away from the pleasures of driving I made bold and got behind the wheel today to go and pay my respects to the Sea Link. And thankfully I did remember that the right-most pedal is the accelerator and that I need to hit the clutch to change my gearshift! But that knowledge was not enough for me, given my subequent tryst with Mumbai traffic, since I was stomping on the brake at least double the number of times I depressed the clutch and the accelerator put together!

A one year hiatus from driving has not dulled my driving skills. But it sure has blunted the memories of Mumbai traffic from my mind. People always tell me that traffic in Mumbai is a lot more disciplined than traffic in Delhi, or Chennai or any other city in India for that matter. And this comes just when I complain to my friends about the gross disregard shown to drivers by cabbies who run a drag race of their own from traffic signal to traffic signal! I can only imagine then, how traumatic life can be for those who need to drive in those other cities.

So, never mind the incessant wait in never-ending traffic snarls. Never mind the billowing smoke that emanates from the random truck whose gas pipe is so conveniently at the level of your open car window! As long as there is the radio, though I wish they'd play more music and talk lesser, and as long as you're ok to go on with closed windows, life is cool, well comparatively cooler! But hell breaks loose when an aspiring grand prix driver in a black and yellow cab suddenly decides that a red light turning to green is akin to the 'five lights illuminate and they go out, and the Mumbai Grand Prix is GO' signal!! Unfortunately people slowly getting back to grips with the pleasures of driving are caught in the fray, HEADLONG. And then start the observations.

People are always in a hurry. Especially those on two wheels. They go as far to the edge of the signal as they possibly can, and when the light turns green they race like as though in a MotoGP so that they can zip past the next signal and the next maybe before those lights turn red! And much as you're concerned about protecting your car, you worry more about their life, since a simple nudge by a car is perhaps enough to kill them! Ford was right - a car is indeed a lethal weapon, and given the spate of hit-and-runs, looks like the RTO is indeed handing over licenses to kill to our aspiring 18 year olds! So, silent prayers and occasional 'gadha kaheen ka' gaalis later, you move on and come to yet another signal. This one is red and you drum your steering wheel to the tune that's playing and 'Uff teri adaa' is interrupted by a loud honk. Why? the traffic signal has a second ago turned green and the car behind you thinks you have launch control a-la F1 cars! Alas, even a Ferrari F430 gives 0 to 100 kmph in 3.5 seconds!!! But who cares, what if you had fallen asleep behind the wheel? The guy behind you is doing you a favor here!!

And finally comes the car driver or cabbie who thinks he is on a motor bike. He zips and zooms as fast as he can and that is ok. You'd perhaps stay faaaaaaar away from those species. The issue is when he thinks he can push his car through a gap between a truck and your car and in the process leaves a dirty gash all over the side of your car. Never mind the spoilt appearance. The biggest problem is coming home and explaining that the source of the gash was errant driving by a lunatic on the road and not a need for speed from your side! But that argument seldom ever flies and you perhaps end grounded for a week!

But in terms of driving in Mumbai now, with the higher income levels and the increased proliferation of drivers who drive in gay abandon with scant regard towards the well-being of cars both under and around them, being grounded is perhaps the best thing that could happen to you!!!

My first tryst with the Bandra Worli Sea Link

July 1 2009. Momentous day for all us Mumbaikars. Many called us (read me) insane. A bridge was being opened, and I was feeling sad that I couldn't be there to go cruising on it. For me though it was not just a bridge. It was the Bandra-Worli Sea Link, called a modern engineering marvel by the designers. Now, whether it is an engineering marvel or whatever, is something left for my civil engineer friends to debate, comparing the Golden Gate with BWSL, and so on. For me, the BWSL (Bandra Worli Sea Link) was something that would redefine the Mumbai landscape forever. Why am I so attached to some piece of infrastructure being developed in Mumbai? Well, the answer lies in the fact that I - like almost all of my friends who sat together lamenting the fact that we were away from the sea link - am a true Mumbai-phile - one who loves anything and everything about Mumbai - from the Vada Pav to the rains, from the people to the trains! So, yesterday while I was finally on my way home, my list of things to do included an 'I HAVE TO VISIT THE SEA LINK' entry. Getting home, after downing my cup of filter coffee, I started 'pataoing' dad to take me on the sea link. Heavy rains rocked Mumbai all of yesterday, and even more rains were forecast for today. My dad was a little wary. He wasn't too keen on agreeing to the plan up front, but, the blackmailing power of a homesick girl coming home after 3 whole months is rather immense, (as dad soon found out).

Today, as though on cue, it rained, and rained but thankfully not as much as it did yesterday! So after some more rounds of pataoing and promising never to ask him to go driving in colossal rains again, dad relented. We decided to leave at 9 pm, go to the sea link, approach it from Worli and return through Bandra. Ta daa!! It didn't rain all evening, and I thought that perhaps I had sold too low - my promise of never asking dad to take me on a drive in pouring rain (asking him to let me drive in a drizzle, let alone a downpour would be imbecile, let alone futile!!!) was perhaps too high a price! Call it winner's curse if you will? But as though the rain Gods were reading my nefarious thoughts, it started to rain, and rain it did indeed! We were somewhere crossing Worli Naka to enter Sea Face when it rained like the clouds were out to empty their store on just this one night. My dad was driving at the pace of, well a snail, since he could not see beyond his own nose! He looked at the rear view mirror and gave me a look that conveyed a whole host of emotions ranging from ' I told you so' to 'GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR' to 'Pampering hamein kis mode pe le aaya......' A sheet of drops thudded down the car, while I chose to maintain a dignified silence. As we drove on, we realized that we had entered Sea Face, and there, slowly moving away from my field of vision was the Sea Link on my right. I screamed out! 'We missed it.. It's gone, now we'll hit Haji Ali and have to retrace all the way back!!!' Exasperated, dad just said, " The entry is on the other side of the road. It's called the Bandra Worli Sea link for a reason - The ease of entry and exit is from Bandra to Worli, not the other way round. We would need to traverse the whole length of the sea face, to make a U turn and take the road that leads up to your dearest bridge." Afraid that any protests might result in either me being 'de-carred' (as in de-planed) or in a U turn that'd lead back home instead of to the sea link, once again, I chose my dignified silence. The rain continued to pelt down mercilessly, the speed of the wiper was 10 times that of my car, the guy ahead of us was even slower, and the guy behind us decided to pull up to the side flashing his distress signal. My mind kept screaming ' Dignified Silence, Dignified Silence'. Finally, we reached the curb, and took a U turn, and traversed the whole Sea Face again, to hit the entry point of the sea link.

A wave of emotion swept through me and forgetting my resolve of 'dignified silence' I just let out a whistle of awe! Yes, it is an imposing structure, and the feel of whizzing on it, while imagining the sea underneath was truly immense. Add to that, the fact that the rain was pelting us from up above, while we could imagine the sea lashing at the pillars of the bridge from down below. It felt like creative poetry of sorts! I know, some would call me crazy, but who cares, it felt awesome! Smooth roads, no congestion, people driving like civil human beings, felt like as if I was in another plane altogether! And then we reached the section of the suspension bridge. The part of the bridge that is generally seen in all pictures and images - the picture that evokes images and the inevitable comparison to Golden Gate. the gradual triangular picture of the cables slowly rising up, culminating at the peak of the pillar and then descending back in a perfectly isosceles manner honestly left me thinking about Rembrandt! Ok Rembrandt is perhaps an overstatement, let me say Rothko. (Who else models pictures on geometrical shapes???) And then within around 10minutes, we were at the end of the link, and at Bandra! Fast and fabulous was what came into my mind, and I thought back about the numerous times I spent almost an hour and a half in the bus to college at Bandra! If only I were a few years younger and were going to college at Bandra now, I would wake up at 8 for an 8.15 class!!! Well, if I were wishing things like that, I guess I have a separate wish list. Anyway, I somehow felt that I had paid my respects to a new development in Maximum city, given the due that the creation needed.

But somehow I felt I wanted to do this again, perhaps approach BWSL from B instead of W??? So, all through our return journey back home from Bandra, I embarked on another pataoing session, this time careful to avoid mentions of promises, and monsoons, but rather playing the 'thank you sooooo much', 'I am soon heading back out of here' card, much to my dad's chagrin. The pataoing is still on, and when it produces the desired results, I will tell you about my BWSL part 2 - the daytime story... Till then.. tata...