A new journey

In my four+ (and continuing) years of stay in US, I have always been fortunate enough to stay very close to my work. In fact, I have pretty much stayed at the same place all this time and even with a shift of jobs, I didn't have to be behind the wheels for more than 15 minutes. Nothing to complain. Recently, I had to start working from my client's NYC office regularly on account of my new assignment. Apart from my disliking for public transport, the fact that it started exactly at the onset of winter didn't help much to keep up my spirits. Icing on the cake, though, is the 12 ~ 15 minute walk in the cold mornings with the wind blowing at my face like tiny but sharp glass pieces.

But one has to accept the changes and move on overcoming the inherent resistance to get out of our comfort zone. So, it started and I pretty much used up my morning commutes to continue my dreams right where I left them when my wife woke me up. Though I did that for a few weeks, it doesn't provide a good start to the day. I mean, imagine you have to start working in your office (client's office) the moment you are off your bed. So, I started looking for alternatives to engage myself. I tried listening to songs on my iPod, but, it got repetitive and boring at a point.

Long Long ago, I had cultivated the habit of reading novels in myself. Since then I have been on and off on it due to my laziness. The last time I read novels was about a year and half ago. So, I thought why not give it a shot. I had to thank my fellow passengers (esp. the ones in the evening) most of whom were always seen reading (book, magazine - paper or kindle) even in the dimmest of lights through out the commute.

So I started reading, with a fiction novel, Gone Baby Gone, source for the movie by the same name. I had watched that movie a few times and the book was highly recommended by our county librarian. It was good reading in the morning hours, though I knew the story and outcome, the book was nothing like the movie. The book pulls you in slowly and you start to get under the skin of the protagonist as you read on.

In the evening commutes, I tried reading at first but they kicked off or aggravated the headache if one was already in play. I couldn't sleep as well, mostly because I had that feeling of half hungry and partly because I would have run most of the distance from my office to the bus stop to catch the bus . At least some of the days I had company on my way back home, fellow consultants, and our usual chit chats filled in the time. Another interesting thing to do is to watch people.

People in the bus are interesting to watch in the evenings than in the mornings. Some use their their crackberries/iphones/androids to see if that office issue got solved, to plan their weekends/dinner, to see what their friends are up to on nosebook. While some are into serious stuff, games. Like the person I saw on the bus the other day, he was on a game to form as many words as possible and he was onto it so seriously that he must have added at least a few new words to his vocabulary before he got off the bus. And a bunch of losers from 19th century, who carry an antique on which they cannot surf, browse, play or work, talk into it.

Some of these observations are easier to make while you travel standing. I did it once or twice, made sense to stand in the bus and to wait to go home and sit rather than stand in the bus stop waiting to sit in the bus. Everyday, it became easier to read in the mornings and as I got to the end of the novel, it made me read in the evenings as well. And, there I was, at the end of the book after 8 weeks. Fairly long time, but better than giving it up halfway.

Now, I don't dislike the journey as it helps me enrich my knowledge in some way. I am already onto my second novel, The Onion Field, and with a couple more on my 'To Read' list. Life goes on!!