Long time. No excuse for not writing. I am lazy and I know it! Am trying to revive this and start writing more. Thanks to the people who have been reading lately (seems to be a few actually, surprised to say the least). I am going to try and post something every week, and get back to fiction writing. The most possibilities there, most room for imagination and if no one likes it you can just say they don't have the same imagination as you do. :D. Yes, us writers are egoists.
To begin, I wanted to write of a curious phenomena I come across everyday. Everyday!
My single most priced possession that I have worked to buy and maintain and love is my Bike. She is my baby. We have had conversations, she has stopped in the middle of the highway when I have neglected to talk to her for a few days. And I have had to go, "Come on darling, I am sorry. I neglected you, I am idiot" And then she forgives me and roars! So yes, I love her. First love. Was. Is. Will be.
I have had my baby for 3 years now. Clocked close to 23K kilo meters on it. And once you have rolled that much in Mumbai traffic, you become an extremely irritated man. By every idiot who decides to step on the road.
Let me paint you a picture. It is 11 PM. You have, admittedly, had a very long day in office. You get on your bike, turn the ignition, press the starter, and behold! That sound makes you smile. You get to the road and are gliding peacefully. You see a green signal at an erstwhile busy junction and say, wow, lucky me. Empty road, green signal. Let's power through. You see it now? Do you? Do you see the fatalistic mistake this innocent and naive rider is about to make? Do you see how he is about to trust the system and the sensibility of the human race? Do you see how he is about to be betrayed by the people he lives with.
Because, just as you slow down a bit at the traffic light, look to your left to make sure no one is about to break your gallop of freedom, a human being who does not deserve to be called one, jumps his light from your right, screeches past you at 60 km/h, while you are left with a split second to hit your brakes, pray that they hold, remember what it was like to be hugged the last time and pray it is not your last hug, think of what it would be like if you died here, alone, in the middle of the night, because some one who should have followed a simple rule did not. Your brakes hold. You are safe. You are shaken. You curse. You look around to berate the idiot who just killed you expecting to see him climb out and apologize, yet all you can admire are the tail lights of his speeding away vehicle. You cringe. You compose yourself. And then you wait. Because YOUR light just turned red. You wait, but no one else does. Everyone else jumps the light. You still wait though, because you know what it is like to be this close to death.
This is an actual account. It happened twice, in 1 month. Once with a car and once with a BEST bus, which unfortunately had to stop at the next station and the driver got an earful from me.
While we sit here and fume about how women in our country are not safe, look inside you. How many rules do you break every day. How many times do you say the one sentence that ought to become unspeakable; "Chalta hai yaar!" No, it is not OK. it is not OK to break a traffic light just because you are in a hurry and there is no one else crossing you. It is not OK to think it is OK to do this. It is this fundamental lack of sincerity which is doing what it is doing to our world today. Be sincere. Be fair. You decided to be born as a human being. Now follow the rules. Don't follow them because they are there. Follow them because if you don't, you lose the right to ask someone else why he didn't.
I now wait at every traffic light. It may be 2 AM on an empty junction. It may be 8 PM on a busy junction with every car behind me honking and every driver abusing me, sometimes loudly. But I wait. because I don't want to sleep tonight knowing I broke a rule that could have cost someone their life. Will you do the same?
To begin, I wanted to write of a curious phenomena I come across everyday. Everyday!
My single most priced possession that I have worked to buy and maintain and love is my Bike. She is my baby. We have had conversations, she has stopped in the middle of the highway when I have neglected to talk to her for a few days. And I have had to go, "Come on darling, I am sorry. I neglected you, I am idiot" And then she forgives me and roars! So yes, I love her. First love. Was. Is. Will be.
I have had my baby for 3 years now. Clocked close to 23K kilo meters on it. And once you have rolled that much in Mumbai traffic, you become an extremely irritated man. By every idiot who decides to step on the road.
Let me paint you a picture. It is 11 PM. You have, admittedly, had a very long day in office. You get on your bike, turn the ignition, press the starter, and behold! That sound makes you smile. You get to the road and are gliding peacefully. You see a green signal at an erstwhile busy junction and say, wow, lucky me. Empty road, green signal. Let's power through. You see it now? Do you? Do you see the fatalistic mistake this innocent and naive rider is about to make? Do you see how he is about to trust the system and the sensibility of the human race? Do you see how he is about to be betrayed by the people he lives with.
Because, just as you slow down a bit at the traffic light, look to your left to make sure no one is about to break your gallop of freedom, a human being who does not deserve to be called one, jumps his light from your right, screeches past you at 60 km/h, while you are left with a split second to hit your brakes, pray that they hold, remember what it was like to be hugged the last time and pray it is not your last hug, think of what it would be like if you died here, alone, in the middle of the night, because some one who should have followed a simple rule did not. Your brakes hold. You are safe. You are shaken. You curse. You look around to berate the idiot who just killed you expecting to see him climb out and apologize, yet all you can admire are the tail lights of his speeding away vehicle. You cringe. You compose yourself. And then you wait. Because YOUR light just turned red. You wait, but no one else does. Everyone else jumps the light. You still wait though, because you know what it is like to be this close to death.
This is an actual account. It happened twice, in 1 month. Once with a car and once with a BEST bus, which unfortunately had to stop at the next station and the driver got an earful from me.
While we sit here and fume about how women in our country are not safe, look inside you. How many rules do you break every day. How many times do you say the one sentence that ought to become unspeakable; "Chalta hai yaar!" No, it is not OK. it is not OK to break a traffic light just because you are in a hurry and there is no one else crossing you. It is not OK to think it is OK to do this. It is this fundamental lack of sincerity which is doing what it is doing to our world today. Be sincere. Be fair. You decided to be born as a human being. Now follow the rules. Don't follow them because they are there. Follow them because if you don't, you lose the right to ask someone else why he didn't.
I now wait at every traffic light. It may be 2 AM on an empty junction. It may be 8 PM on a busy junction with every car behind me honking and every driver abusing me, sometimes loudly. But I wait. because I don't want to sleep tonight knowing I broke a rule that could have cost someone their life. Will you do the same?
2 comments:
I thought Shyam was the only one who did this. Infact on one of the first occasions he was dropping me home and something similar happened, he asked me, 'Arey yeh log kidhar bhaag rahe hai?' and I retorted, 'Chal na 12 baje kaun dekhta hai?' Guilty as charged. But he didn't. Even now, if he HAS to run a light, he does it extremely reluctantly. He once told me, people who do all this shit here will behave like angels abroad. I refused to believe it, until I actually saw it happen. Sigh. Such a strange little Indian world.
Ooohh the pleasures of riding a two wheeler.. And the magic of the signal.. I believe the traffic signal is a woman.. Just when you think you have got her "go signal" she changes her mind and screams stop with a red signal :D Ah well, I know I am being sexist!
But yes i agree. The last accelerated rush to make the green signal to avoid waiting for two-five minutes.. Could be fatal to anyone. Maybe we should start taking the "orange" signal seriously and slow down. Because we want to not because we have to..
Nice one..
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