10 Minute Errand, 10 kms, 4 hour Trip

It is a Festival weekend here, and people today warned me to “leave early”, there will be a lot of traffic. I compared this in my head to a holiday weekend in NC, where people take a ½ day, and then by the time 5PM is here, everyone has left town and the roads are not busy between 6-8pm. Turned out to be quite the fantasy thought. I left at 5:30 to just go halfway across Bangalore (10 kms), for an errand that would take 10 minutes once I arrived. It took the driver and me 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there, and over 2 hours to return. Bangalore is congested on any given day, but if you hear there is a Festival, let me give you a tip: Just go to the store the week before (like a snowstorm is coming to NC) and rush back inside your homes before the traffic jams start! (Unless you enjoy a good traffic jam.) I saw things out there tonight that I would never have imagined could occur. Some things I cannot post on this blog! Other things included a bus that had “had enough” and attempted to cross a small wall of concrete to turn around. The first half of the bus made it. There were 5 people working on the other half as we rode by. I think our side window actually hit another vehicle at one point, but no one stopped. Everyone was too tired I am sure. My driver…so kind….oh so kind…..yet, he said so many things to me that I could have taped and replayed a million times and will never understand a year from now. At one point I asked him what time he normally got off work, as we were supposed to be back by 7, it was now 9, and I had seen him working early this morning. Knowing he lives in Bangalore…..I asked him “When you get off work, how long will it take you to get home in all of his traffic?”. He said “It takes 4 hours to travel to Chennai”. Oh dear, he does not understand me either. Long day for sure, fellow travelers of Bangalore! Hope everyone enjoys the Festival weekend.