All in a day's work

Stop dwelling on everything that you sense, tell it to .... ...

Incessantly driving along, heading back home from my university i came across that eureka moment where i thought i had it all figured which was suddenly followed by an inner voice saying "I dont think so".

I couldn't give my routine a direction, a moment which many of you might have come across when you can’t decide where your life is going. I realized that this routine of mine had been going over for some while now (3 years and a couple months to be a little specific) and i seemed to lose focus of which day of which month, of which year it was, because it was all the same, very much like the other days. Usually waking up early in the morning, knowing there is an hour's drive to the university filled with traffic and a plethora of traffic signals and ending up going for home at 6 in the evening and even then as if the day’s struggle was not enough I find myself in a constant battle of saving car fuel by going slow and and an urge of quickly reaching home and handing over the transport to whoever needs it and laying off for rest.

Anyway, driving along the extra dusty, steel mills polluted area of the ring road directly in the direction of the sunset, tired from a hard day’s work at the university, tired of the idea of driving, with the least amount of motivation to step on the gas pedal or for that matter do anything besides just sitting there in the driving seat of the car barely holding on or should I say barely touching the steering wheel of the car to keep it in lane, i drove just below the speed limit to save myself from a speeding fine and carefully caressing the accelerator of the car, in fifth gear, making it run at just the right speed at the right rpm (the reading pointing exactly between 2 and 3) which i had heard is the optimal engine speed for most economical performance to keep it from consuming more fuel and maintaining a reasonable speed, i approached the city dump.

As if my mind was not processing enough information coming from all the senses, i reached the famous CDGL(City Distric Govt. Lahore)'s "dump" where they attempt to dispose off the waste of the city of lahore by simply leaving it out in the open. It is spread acrosss acres of land just at the bank of river Ravi and regardless of whether the fresh air vent of the car is closed or not, no matter how tight you shut your car windows or for that matter even if you turn the A/C off, the staunch smell would seep in just as usual, everytime you cross those heaps of waste.

Adding to that was the tension of people usually miscalculating the speed of the vehicles coming their way high jumping across the road partitions, running, slipping and ending up right in the way of cars speeding in the fastest lane of Ring Road, resulting in screeching halts and stoppages and an exchange of a lot of colorful words once both parties are in the hearing distance.

Owing to the densely populated blocks on both sides filled with people who are not accustomed to crossing highways as it cuts through their very homes and bazars where at first there hardly used to be a road and now there is a nearly as wide a road as motorway on which cars speed across in an attempt to save time and by pass the traffic of the city, and it is totally needless to say the whole concept has been misjudged by the government when planning that this would make the road a thoroughfare because the busy bazars on the right and left have to communicate and exchange goods and services during the light of the day.

Driving along, as if I hadn’t got enough of the other basic senses , suddenly Rihanna on the radio intently inquisitions "Just gonna stand there, watch me burn?" , and that was all i needed to hear after a hard day’s work.

Pumped by the instinctive urge to save the damsel in distress, i let go of all worries of fuel economy and speeding fines, donkey carts and cyclists in the way or for that matter all considerations of pedestrians crossing the road, i sped up, crossing the bounds of speed limit and destroying the fuel economy that i had been so long maintaining, in an attempt to quickly reach the place the lady was calling out from, as if she really was calling out for help and that too only to me through the radio in my car.

No sooner did i realize the petrol gauge on a race against time, speeding towards "E" as the car sped towards 130 and no sooner did i see a police car on the horizon with their speed guns pointed at me and a policeman intent on stopping me for a fine.

It seemed the sense of taste had not been paid heed to and it came to show its presence, that speeding ticket did leave a bad taste through the rest of the journey.

Don't dwell on every piece of information. LET IT GO!