"Why do we get stressed out and tensed in a journey?"

"Why do we get stressed out and tensed in a journey?"

I have a long way to drive from Tambaram to Guindy on a daily basis for work. I love the drive. But when some one says "Tambaram?" and/or "So far!" is a disgusting and discouraging tone, I really want to give them a kick. People should encourage others and never ever try discouraging them in any point of time. Recently a friend of mine was telling me that he felt tensed while in buses. Quite curious, I was asking him why. I told him that let me do a simple research on the topic and try to share with the world too.

This simple research spanned from March 1st 2008 to March 30th 2008, a period of one month in full. There were a number of different parameters that were taken into consideration. A few of them are:

1. Different Cities [Cities known for thier notorious traffic snarls like Chennai and Bangalore]
2. Different Time Zones
1. Peak hour
2. Non Peak hour
3. Late Nights
4. Early Mornings
3. Modes of Commutation
1. Public Conveyance
1. Bus
2. Share Auto
2. Private Hired
1. Dial a Cab
2. Call Taxi
3. Private Two wheeler

There are a number of observations and factors that make a journey memorable or unpalatable. These are:

1. The number of tasks on hand. When you are more time-critical tasks, you normally feel that the mind is always on the task and the intermediate journey as an obstacle.
2. The lack of appreciation to the Nature and the ambience around. There are a number of interesting things happening around you during your journey. We need to listen, watch and learn a lot of things from them.
3. Bad Road. Currently, the way government recklessly digs roads on the pretext of laying bridges, the roads are in a real bad shape. This presents a number of traffic snarls and the end result being turbulent journey.
4. Bad Road Sense. At least in Chennai, people just try to overtake one another throwing traffic rules to the air. This creates a lot of confusion on the roads. Abhishek has a good initiative to book traffic offenders through his innovative TrafficViolators website. Check it out here and participate in the unique community venture. What's more. You can also get a free email account at TrafficViolators from here, powered by Windows Live.

At least currently, the only way to overcome the tension are the following. We can not keep complaining and have our blood vessels to blast in hypertension.

1. Listen to a cool FM radio on journey. I have hyperlinked my earlier post on Nokia 6030 which has a builtin FM radio and GPRS.
2. You can also read books but be warned that doctors advise against reading books in a moving vehicle since it strains the eyes.

Readers: What do you feel about your long drives? Do share your views.