The Traffic Nation

So I finally got down to writing about the ONE thing that frustrates me every weekday morning (thank you Mandy for that motivating Facebook status of yours!)... If your educated guess was TRAFFIC, thats absolutely right! Living only 16 miles away from work, I thought I would get to work in a heartbeat; utilizing one of the best road systems in the world, the Interstate Highway system ... but little did I know that this interstate system also had other adjectives to it, apart from "awe-inspiring" and "huge". At around 5am every weekday morning, the cars start gushing onto Interstate 93 (yes, I use the word 'gushing') exactly as the water gushes through pipes when opened; only difference being that water moves faster than the cars on I-93  around 7am onwards. It is then on, that the dreaded journey begins... I swear you have to be more awake driving at 10mph than at 70mph, because there is absolutely no way you can know when the damn car in front of you is going to stomp on the brakes. RJs (radio jockeys) have aptly referred to the traffic jams on I-93 as "its a parking lot", "I-93 is a complete mess" and "its not a bumpy ride, its barely even a crawl", (alright, so I made up that last one there) but you get the picture, right?  Only when its about 10am, do the cars start "moving" again at decent speeds and one can then infer that cars are actually faster means of transport than cycling.

Now of course, being stuck in traffic is not fun for anyone unless someone has a car that can drive itself, and the driver can actually watch the morning news on his/her in-dash LED TV ... (yep, thats the future!). You can't change the roads, so lets change the cars. Anyways, this reminds me of a world famous and time tested quotation that goes, "Necessity is the mother of invention". What does this have anything to do with Traffic, you ask. Well, it doesn't have anything to do directly, but the thought of having time on your hands while being stuck in a traffic jam and having nothing to do is absolutely unacceptable. Time is money for the Americans, which is why, drivers here have come up with ingenious ways to utilize this otherwise wasted time. For an easy read, I am just going to list them first and then maybe comment on them, if I feel like it. So, here goes the interesting list of activities (in no particular order), that people indulge in when they are stuck in traffic jams. The normal tasks like sipping coffee and listening to the radio are not included, as they are too mundane of tasks now and probably every driver today can do them with their eyes closed (not that anyone wants you to close your eyes while driving). So here it goes,

1. Shave/Pluck hair
2. Apply makeup etc.
3. Cut/file nails
4. Eat breakfast
5. Read the Newspaper (print edition)
6. Check emails on smartphones/IPADS
7. Texting (A New LAW banning this into effect starting 30th September, 2010 in Massachusetts - All berry users, beware!)
8. Watch a movie on the custom installed in-dash TV (in very rare cases) - Beware of these people, chances are they are going to rear-end you sooner or later.

I can't really think of anything else apart from the ones there ...Thats all that I have personally seen happening on the roads here, if anyone else has seen anything more wackier, comments section below is where you will let me know! Unfortunately, after having driven like this for almost a year now, (8 months co-op last year, and 4 months currently) I dare say I haven't at all tried any of the wacky things, apart from talking to my parents on the phone on most mornings, which kills me at the end of the month, when I find out I have surpassed my alloted minutes by 100s ...

As long as no one gets killed doing these tasks, all is good; I say that because if someone's killed on the road, or gets into a messy accident, it adds to more traffic which is already worse to start off with. Just this other week, there was apparently a rolled over car on I-90 which was preventing the smooth flow of traffic for two days. Just imagine being the cause of that insane two day traffic jam; I don't think many people will sympathize with the person involved in the accident.

And yes, I know I should look for alternatives if I have so many issues with the traffic .. and believe me I am looking into that as hard as I possibly can ... I might end up driving half way to work in the completely opposite direction and then catch the train into Cambridge, but for now I guess ... thats how its got to be ...

Salaam (Peace)!

Tomorrow may not come ...

So I didn't mean to kick off my interest in blogging on something as sad as this, but this incident touched me and I thought I should use this blog as my canvas to convert thoughts into words.

As I was relaxing at my uncle's home around noon on this Sunday, after a morning of soccer with my colleagues from work, I hardly knew my rest of the day would completely change its course from what I had planned. One of my uncle's good friends, who lived with his wife and two young children, was out deep sea fishing with friends, when suddenly the phone rang and I found out he suffered a heart attack and passed away on the way to the hospital. This was the most shocking news I have heard in a long time, and I couldn't believe what I had heard. I just couldn't believe that a charismatic young man in his 30s, who I had seen only a week ago at an Eid party, in the best of spirits, smiling and jovially talking to everyone, isn't alive to see tomorrow. It was hard to swallow the fact that I wouldn't see him ever again, and my heart goes out to his wife and kids, who have to bear this immense loss.

After hearing this dreadful news, I sat alone at home thinking about life, death and everything in between. Nowadays I feel people are so engrossed in their everyday lives that they have totally forgotten that these peaceful lives of theirs can change course in the blink of an eye. Who would have thought that he would pass away today, on this beautiful Sunday morning?

It can sound harsh that he left behind two little kids who have lost their father in one morning... but thats the ugly side of life. Life is just too short to be spent on insignificant things such as fighting, arguing and in some cases not even upholding the ties of kinship etc.... Day in and day out, we see people holding grudges against their neighbors, relatives, friends and even their closest family members (parents, siblings); for what? Today they are there, tomorrow they might not be .. and then these grudges wouldn't even hold any meaning or significance.

It is really hard to cope with death ... in this case I only knew the deceased man (May God let him enter paradise) through my uncle, and yet I feel as if I have lost someone very close to me. I just wanted to tell everyone that Life is just too short to waste time on insignificant things ... make time for those who love you and for those who you love and value people when they are alive .. not after they are long gone from this world.