Fall in place

Travelling in an office cab to and fro from work is inevitable.It was a week before route buses were allocated to us freshers.It was all about excitement from the start.We were excited to know that we had a cab service right in front of the flat where we were put up.Excited enough to be early to board the cab the first day. It would be quite a buzz that we created inside the bus.Rush for a window seat,call out to a friend to come and join ,celebrate when a popular song was on air in Radio Mirchi,do everything but jump out of the window when another cab passed ours and even more so if it was carrying a batchmate.

When I became sober enough to notice other cab mates they seemed out of the world.The first few days I did not care to bother as to why they seemed so abnormal.When I did care to, it frustrated me.Everyone looked like robots.No one seemed to talk or smile.Some of them had headsets on.Some slept.Once in a while one of them would be brought out of his trance by his ringing phone.At times one of them would turn around and give us a sick look."They look like bobbing hydrogen balloons plugged to the seats!"I had thought then.

Present Day

The time in between getting into the office cab and settling down into a seat moves with lightening speed.Most of the time we run behind cabs or the cab waits for us or we board an auto on realising that we have missed all possible buses along our route.The other day I was sitting in the cab with my headset on.A young man joined me in my seat.He is a new face who has started coming in my cab.There is a whole gang of them now.Freshers from the 2007 batch.Before the bus has started towards home,he had collected his gang around him.God!What a clatter they make!I refrain from turning around and giving them the look.I look at my other cab mates.Bobbing heads.Before I had noticed, I had joined their club.