Walkathon...

Last Thursday the bus drivers here in Mumbai went on strike and thanks to them I was finally able to scratch out item number 148 on my things-to-do-before-I-die-list - Walk all the way home...from office. I live in Andheri, which is a suburb in western Mumbai and commute to work to Powai, a suburb in central Mumbai. It is a distance of close to 15 kms ... a little less than ten miles (the shortest route is 12 Kms, but if I walked that route, I would need to sterilize my feet in DETTOL for a week...the less said the better) and it took me a little under three hours to complete the feat and a beaming me arrived home, with only a bad shoe bite and a slightly hurting right foot, but none the worse for wear.

I have been with my current company for over five years now, my longest stay with any organisation and have survived the one year completion gift -a plant, I don't know the name, it lasted only three days in my company, the three year completion gift - a desk top organiser which had a pen stand, small clock and mobile holder and am now awaiting my five year completion gift which at the current time I'm told is a back-pack... but I digress, during these five years, have had the opportunity to work out its many offices, starting out at Powai, moving to Scotland, back to Powai, a bit of a stint at the Vikhroli office, back to Powai, then a few short stints at the England and Singapore offices, but always coming back to the Powai office and all throughout I nursed an ambition that one day I would walk all the way home from the Powai office. I don't know when this nut-case idea first infected me, but somehow it was always there in the back of my mind that I wanted to do this and now I can sleep easy as I FINALLY DID IT!!!

The day didn't begin on an auspicious note and my brother who off late kindly drops me to office was down with a flu and I was left to fend for myself. The journey to the office was accomplished quite easily as there was no traffic, thanks to the buses being off the road. The journey back was a nightmare. It began all tame and easy, as I tried to coax and cajole the rickshaw drivers to ferry me to Andheri, which is a feat in itself on normal days, what with them pulling faces at me when they hear that I want to go to Andheri,  it makes me feel as if I have expressed a burning desire to go to hell and was asking them to go with me.

Today with the buses on strike the rickshaw drivers were the uncrowned kings of the roads, spoilt for choice as they were they just shot off like scalded cats when I said I wanted to go to Andheri. I waited at the usual spot for rickshaws but when after 15 minutes I was still rickshawless, I decided to take drastic action, and accordingly began walking outside the complex towards the highway, where I usually manage to get a rickshaw. Once on the highway I noticed that the situation was grimmer than I thought, It had begun to rain like there was no tomorrow and there was water logging everywhere, people where literally pouncing on empty rickshaws. The traffic was also exceptionally bad.

I walked a little further, by now I was soaked to the skin and saw an empty rickshaw parked by the highway and eagerly went up to the driver. The man lounging on the drivers seat lost in thought and wearing one of those Gandhi topis with "I am Anna Hazare" written on it. He must have been in deep thought about the state of the nation or some such important issue, I don't know, I politely inquired whether he would take me to Andheri and he surfaced from the depth of his ruminations long enough to pull a face at me and went back into his coma.

I then continued walking and reached the flyover, here I decided to skip the flyover as with the traffic was bad and the chances of being run down by someone in a fit of road rage was a possibility. Accordingly I took the service road and went towards Saki Naka, here I misjudged the distance that needed to be travelled, the distance is less than 10 minutes by car and today with the rain pouring in a steady stream it seemed like the road was endless with no sign of Saki Naka anywhere on the horizon. Finally after walking for what seemed like an eternity I arrived at Saki Naka.

After Saki Naka I encountered some of the worst stretches of the road, what with having to wade across huge puddles, gingerly walk on the debris from the Metro Project, keep my eyes peeled to ensure that I don't step on anything unsavoury (I saw a man step on a dead rat, the look of horror on his face and the high jump that followed the discovery were some of the lighter moments of the journey). J.B.Nagar, Marol, The International Airport and Charat Singh Nagar passed in a blur. All the while I kept looking for an empty rickshaw.

Finally I arrived at the Western Express Highway - Bisleri Junction Andheri -East (which in my mind is where the boundary of my area or my Andheri begins) here my feet began feeling a little tired and I seemed to have pulled a muscle or nerve in my right foot so progress was essentially at a very slow pace. I had been walking for over two hours now and was just putting one foot in front of the other and picturizing myself sitting at home with a hot bowl of soup in my hands and my feet in hot DETTOL water, cause god alone know what I had waded through.. I'm a little crazy like that. Finally I reached home to a very worried mum a little before nine thirty in the night after having walked for two hours and fifty minutes!!!