The Art of Waiting In Queue (Or You Are In Queue, Please Wait)

Once upon a time I used to hate waiting in queues. Bank teller counters, ration shops, railway booking counters, Hospitals etc etc etc... Queues were every where.

Now I don't care! One because I don't have all those queues to deal with. I rarely visit the bank, what with net banking and private banking managers. Ration shops are a thing of the past. At least as far as I am concerned. Hospitals don't have queues. I call up, get an appointment and go meet the Doctor. Most Railway tickets are booked on the net or Padmaja sends her office boy.

Secondly, I have learned the Art Of Waiting In Queues!

I had to go to the Nampally Railway Station this morning to cancel my train tickets and had to deal with the queues there. But I was nonchalant! I started preparations last night :-)

Steps followed:

1. Update the iPod with the current favorites and make sure it is fully charged.
2. Load the cell phone with the current book I am reading and make sure the phone is charged.
3. Figure out what clothes to wear. This is very important if you have to wait in a queue in the heat of summer and the idiot behind you insists on pushing all the time in the belief that this will somehow speed up the process.
4. Tell self that the damn queue is not going to be a problem. Remind self again in the morning. And again when I get to the station and see how many other idiots are ahead of me.
   

At's all there is to it! With Jagjit Singh crooning in my ears and a good book on the phone, I wasn't worried! The mandatory idiot-behind-me-who-keeps-pushing-and-smells-of-sweat-and-has-bad-breath did not disturb my composure! I did not twiddle my thumbs. No Sir. Not me! I used one of them to push up the volume of the iPod and the other to navigate to the next page of my novel.

I was tranquility personified! I didn't bother to glance at the head of the queue even once! I didn't compulsively keep counting the number of people in front of me. I did not glance at my watch at all let alone time the processing rate!

I have truly learned the Art of Waiting In Queues!