As we stopped for the hundredth time, I checked my phone in frustration. It was around 9 pm. Traffic today was horrible. In my eternal effort to care for the environment and also my overworked/abused purse strings, I opted to take a shared cab.
Translation - I was cooped up with over twenty people making numerous stops, all while braving the Bengaluru traffic.
All of a sudden, the hair on the back of my neck stood up.
“Ting ting tan tan ting ting”
It was a sound that I recognised well.
One of the passengers had fished out their laptop and was attending a Teams call as I looked on in despair.
The traffic noise was interrupted by sharp words like "deadline," "dashboard," and "circle back." I desperately looked at the guy sitting beside me. I found him in a deeply meditative state, typing out an email on his phone.
As the shuttle groaned on braving through the impenetrable vehicles, I wondered if we ever really "switch off".