Wait! And Smell The Roses

-->Isn’t it weird sometimes when someone you least expect opens your eyes to something you had failed to notice for a long time?

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I have a new driver now. My old driver left for some personal reasons and now we have this guy who is new to Chennai and knows nothing about the roads, the routes and the traffic. Anyone who has been to Chennai will know what I mean when I talk about Chennai traffic rules. There ARE no rules. You find your way and go ahead, any way! It is hard to find a vehicle here which does not have at least one dent on it

So our new driver, who is used to roads of Dubai and earlier, Mumbai, is extra cautious about driving, waiting for all the vehicles to pass and going oh-so-slow. I mean, very VERRRRY slow!

It was one such time when he was crawling through the roads of Chennai that I lost my cool. I was returning home from a temple and had to get home and watch a movie. And by the looks of it, I wouldn’t have got to watch the movie for a long time!

‘Anthony! Why are you driving so slowly?? You’re letting all the vehicles pass us! Can’t you go a little faster?’

‘Yes Madame, ok Madame’

A minute passed and 10 cars overtook ours.

‘Anthony!!!’

‘Madame?’

‘A little faster!’

Silence.

‘Do you have something important to attend to, back home Madame?’

‘Not particularly, but it won’t harm anyone to go a little faster, would it?’

‘Madame, how many times have you taken this road?’

‘Loads of times. This was the road I took to college, for 4 years!’

‘How many petrol bunks are there on the way?’

‘2. Why?’

‘Ok. What about temples?’

‘Quite a few, around 4 or 5.’

‘Hmmm… and which is your favourite house on the ECR (east coast road)?’

‘Err… I don’t know… never looked so closely.’

‘Madame! You’ve travelled this road for 4 years! And there are so many beautiful houses on this road. There’s the one with a lot of bougainvilleas, the one next to the Muthappa temple, the one with the high walls surrounding it, the one with the tall trees... and you can’t even think of one?’

I was stunned. I knew Anthony had never been to the ECR before. And yet, he had seen all that I had never cared to see. What was I to do hurrying back home? Watch a movie filmed in some faraway land when I didn’t even know what was there in my own?

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And then I was silenced. I saw the old woman selling jasmine strands next to the shop selling home décor and artificial flowers. I saw the women selling fish near the deserted bus stop, yelling at the top of their voices. I saw the lamps flicker at the temple and heard the bells ring. I saw a beautiful house, with a swinging chair in its balcony. It looked like somebody had just left the place; it was still swinging. I saw a woman spanking her kid who was covered in mud or what looked like mud! I saw a bunch of slum kids trailing a foreigner who was trying to dodge them and laughed at the poor lady’s panicked face. I saw a boy and a girl holding hands at the ice cream parlour and that made me smile. I saw a lot of things, and went home and forgot all about the movie.

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Sometimes it helps to go slow and enjoy what’s on the way.