Drive

I've been asked so many times why I chose to live where I now live, as it is so far from my workplace, and the traffic is reputedly terrible that I feel I should really address the issue. So, finally, when the question was asked the umpteenth time, I reached deep inside and found out why: I like the drive.

I like to feel that, after one whole day of bullshit and kowtowing to the powers- that-be, I am actually leaving all that behind. I like to see the difference in landscapes and topography from one city to the next as I drive by, traffic or no traffic. In fairness, the traffic in that area where I live is not so bad. It's no worse than that in any other part of the metropolis.

I love to see the change from towering concrete electric posts to the short, thin wooden posts of fluorescent lights along the road; from the hard, concrete five-lane highways to the softer, asphalted two-lane back roads flanked by rice fields and old trees; from skyscrapers to wooden houses. It's a change that heralds the homecoming, no matter how short the time I actually spend "at home."