The Right of choice

It was a wonderful day for her.She was on cloud nine. Not only had she just got her dream job, she would also soon be going abroad for the first time! She was pinching herself repeatedly to believe that it was all true - that it was not all just a manifestation of her brain.
Five years ago, she would never have imagined that such events would ever happen in her life. All her life, she had been always struggling to find normalcy. She never knew the meaning of love, the meaning of care. She had felt always felt misfit, always felt alienated. Nobody ever knew what she was going through - In school, teachers dismissed her silence as a product of her being shy. After all, there are always some shy students in the class! 
Yet, it was far from the truth. She had lost her father in a war, and that was the end of a 'normal' life for her as she knew it. Soon thereafter her mother had abandoned her to be with a man who would not have accepted a daughter. Her parents had not married for love anyway, and it seemed a convenient situation for the mother to abandon her 'undesirable' child.
She had then been adopted by a seemingly benevolent man, who catered for all her expenses; in return for a small pay. He thought she was very lucky to have been adopted by him - and ensured that she always remained aware of this fact. 
She was a devoutly religious girl, and her faith in God only increased during these tough circumstances, Him being the only one she could turn to. She believed that there was a reason that all this had happened to her; and in this process of finding answers she devoured all the religious scriptures. She devoted herself to the study of religion. She may not have found an answer, but it definitely shaped her life to a great extent.

But now, she finally had dared to dream.She had escaped the horrors of her past; and was on her way to becoming an independent woman. She was one of the few women in her profession, making her feel even more accomplished, since the industry traditionally recruited only males. It was flattering, to say the least. And she had been offered one of the most competitive positions too!

It was an year before she went on the much awaited trip abroad. Her trainings had finished, and now she was on the way for a very important project - something that might even gain her international attention if everything went well. She felt that this was the day she had been preparing for all her life. This was the goal, the purpose of her life. This is why she had been subjected to such adverse circumstances in her life, because she was God's favourite child, because she was to attain heaven after her death...

And so, chanting the name of God, she flipped the switch on her explosive vest.

Twelve days of...Driving!

Every day, as I wake up early and go sleepily to learn driving, one phrase comes in my mind every day, invariably– courtesy the advertisement for Ceat tyres- “the streets are filled with idiots!”. The ad very rightly shows cars having to stop suddenly when a person comes on the road from apparently nowhere; and the vehicle having Ceat tyres, is able to stop suddenly within inches of the ‘idiot’ and prevents the accident from happening. And indeed, this is true! The streets of Delhi are undoubtedly filed with idiots. And no, my “almost sleepy” state has nothing to do with this, for once behind the wheel, I am quite wide awake!

First of all, there seems to be an unspoken rule of “mode of transport, no bar” on the so called ‘main roads’. So, from cars to buses to autorickshaws to two wheelers- you name it, it’ll be there! Half of the roads are blocked by the parked cars nearby the residential areas. And then there are the fruit sellers with their carts, all on the same road. Now all of this wouldn’t be a problem if people were intelligent enough to move in their lanes , and save everybody the trouble. No, the autorickshaws have to move on the right side, obviously very slow ,and the buses will suddenly in sweep from the right  to stop at a bus stop on the left, when you are purposefully driving on the left side to stay out of trouble. That’s not all, while the bus comes and you are suddenly forced to brake, there will be children/ women/women with children who will glare at you for the narrow escape they had! But aren’t they supposed to follow the “look left, look right, look left again, then cross the road” rule? Or  is that rule not applicable anymore?  And as though this is not enough, the drivers of two wheelers think that they own the road just because they can squirm through any amount of space. So there you are at a turn, watching intently right and left before turning, very nervous, when a bike zooms past you. Now if you were moving, there would surely been an accident, and of course the person in the car is at fault. Before you recover  from the shock of the ‘almost accident’,  the cars behind you start blaring impatiently and you are forced to make a move quickly, or else bear the wrath of the angry Delhite. For a novice driver like me, the daily driving lesson is very scary, for I am in the constant fear of running over someone and it may not even be my fault! Nevertheless, each day I learn a new lesson, and vow to never become like the idiots I encounter daily on the roads...and if I ever see myself transforming into one, well... there come in the Ceat tyres to save me from the accidents!