ode....

this post is one year and about a month too old....but i simply had to put it down in words...and if you see a steve martin starrer on these lines, remember you heard it here first ....

ganesh chaturthi last year...it's around 8:45 by the time i finish at work....traffic is insane...barely 15mins after i leave office, my car stops....i'm out of fuel....bang at the entrance to the busiest flyover this side of town...right outside a used car showroom next to a mosque...exasperated cops help me push car to the side of the road....i try getting an auto to the petrol bunk with no luck....i dont want the used car salesman to mistake my car for one of his own.......
i realise i have 10bucks in my wallet....yeah, its becoming 'one of those days'....i walk upto the ATM, manage to get an auto and its smooth sailing till the petrol bunk...
but its not to be...i have no bottle to get the petrol in..and the petrol guys are not willing to part with one for love or money...seeing that i'm ready to cry at this point, the kind hearted auto driver (may his tribe increase) empties out his 1.5ltr Pepsi waterbottle and gives it to me...he drops me back halfway, i pay him twice the fare and am back in my car...
By now ofcourse, the ganesha procession is well under way....traffic is at a standstill... its around 10:30, i'm stuck outside the mosque and praying really hard there's no communal riot...
i must have been the only woman there because the revellers tried very enthusiastically to engage me for a bit....
i got home half an hour later...with just enough energy to mumble "crazy day" and crawl into bed.....