My office was only
863m from my house till the other day, when we had to shift to a bigger place
which is 8630m away now. These days I can only define the time I leave my
house. The time of reaching my destination, my office, varies. It depends on a
whole lot of factors such as receiving a call on my mobile just as I exit from
my house and move towards the car to getting into a personal conversation with
the pretty little thing next door.
Once in the car, the
journey to and fro from house to office is an exhilarating experience
projecting the true nature of incredible India in its entire splendor and
horrific. The travails of day one was something akin to what the reluctant
warrior Arjuna may have experienced when the Lord is said to have revealed his
true form (viswarupam) to him on the battlefield at Kurukshetra many
millenniums ago. The feeling is of awe, reverence and scariness. What kept my
knees apart and prevented them knocking against one another in sheer fright was
the distance between the pedals for application of clutch, brake and the
accelerator. The difference here is that while Arjuna experienced it once
in his long life time I endure it twice a day, six days in a week. So
after the first few days I was less scared and these days I enjoy the ordeal as
I can see and feel the Nation on the roads.
The diversity of
India is visible on its roads. Heavy overloaded load carriers , earth movers,
JCB, buses, lorries, light load carriers, SUVs, cars of all sizes and shapes,
auto-rickshaws, motor cycles, scooters, scootys, bicycles, hand carts, cows,
buffaloes, dogs and pedestrians all use the same road at the same time moving
at different speeds in varying degrees of urgency. Traffic moves like water –
flowing into vacant areas oblivious to the environment, haphazardly so much so
that one can often espy a mobiker between you and the car in front parked
horizontal to your direction of travel traveling in that direction nonchalantly
waiting to move into a vacant space ahead in his line of travel - traffic
weaving its way literally! Everyone is in a hurry to get to wherever they are
headed, others be damned.
This morning,
returning from golf I found that in a narrow neck the road was dug up in a
manner to allow only one vehicle to pass that stretch going either way. There
was nobody around and no sign posting to indicate why the rod was dug and how
long will it remain that way. Sure enough I encountered a traffic hold up in
that neck on my way to the office. Exactly how the government works – in silos.
Mining scams take place right on these roads as I believe each time a road is
dug up, ostensibly for some work to make life for the public more comfortable,
money is mined to line the pockets of all the powers in the hierarchy.
On a day when Team
Anna is setting out to fast for a lost cause, we the people must reflect…and
promise to change ourselves…each one of us allowing the other to pass on the
road and as Indians not come in the way of one another…Turning India into a
police state will not help…Just work out how many policemen will be required to
monitor every individual’s activity 24X7.
The two factors to
be addressed for progress are inclusive growth and education to all.
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