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बहारें हमको ढूँढेंगी न जाने हम कहाँ होंगे

इसी अंदाज़ से झूमेगा मौसम, गाएगी दुनिया
मोहब्बत फ़िर हसीं होगी, नज़ारे फ़िर जवाँ होंगे

न तुम होगे न हम होंगे, न दिल होगा मगर फ़िर भी
हज़ारों मंजिलें होंगी हज़ारों कारवां होंगे

बहारें हमको ढूँढेगी न जाने हम कहाँ होंगे

In the Multilevel Parking

My work place is located in a Tech park which houses lot of other companies as well. We share with them the 10 storeys tall, monster of a parking lot and our company owns the 5th storey. And I hate it, totally and unconditionally. To begin with, each storey is split into 2 levels - lower and upper, and to reach the 5th one I need to drive through 9 levels, don't forget the basement. It feels like going into a seemingly endless spiral and my head usually starts spinning by the time I am able to finally park the wretched car. Also, it eats up almost 15 minutes to park and another 10 to walk back to the office. That is, if I get the elevator immediately in both the parking and the office building, which is a hypothetical situation. Usually, with my luck I end up spending another 5 min each at both the places, an utter waste of time. And that is not the only concern. The parking is so dark and poorly lit. Even at 7 pm, I find it deserted and scary. The sight of the few chauffeurs who while away their time playing cards is not exactly relaxing. And who hasn't heard of all the horrible things that happen in parking lots. Moreover, my own sense of direction betrays me just when I need it the most. At times, I enter the lot with an intention of parking, but one wrong turn and I am sent spiralling down to the exit. A WTF moment, if there was one ever! Seriously, they should make these Multi level parkings more women friendly, and have clear directions on each level. Those ambigous red arrows do not work for me.

That was a fairly detailed piece of cribbing. Thankfully, I do not have to put up with this often because I mostly grab a slot in the miniscule parking bang in front of the office. And I come early for it, even if it means missing the breakfast or repeating the previous day's clothes. Despite being a girl. The car stays roasting in the sun and I can't care any less. However, today I got really late and had to go to ML parking. It was past 11 am when I reached, and terribly hot, bright and sunny outside. In contrast, the parking was extremely dark. I initially thought it is because I have come from the sun and my eyes are taking time to adjust to the low light. I turned on the headlights. But things refused to improve as I fumbled my way through the levels. Whatever happened to the visual purple or something like that in my eyes!! It sure worked well earlier, though I had not put it to test recently. Finally, I reached the 5th-upper level parking, and there was this space between 2 cars. I missed it first, then reversed the car to check it again. I couldn't see well enough to assess how much is that space and then if it was really vacant or had a black car parked. Luckily, a security guard spotted me stalled in the center of the floor and came to my aid. He tried giving me directions which given my prowess in reversing and my faltering eyesight, I 'tried' to follow. Anyways, after some 4 cycles of reverse-forward-reverse, and a slight scratch to the car on the left, the car finally got into a position which could pass off as parking. Exhausted, I got out of the car, wondering if I would ever be able to see things the way I used to. I lurched to retrieve my cell phone from the glove compartment, where I noticed the spectacle case ajar. And then it dawned on me, I had been wearing sunglasses all this while.