I'm doing something that I don't often do - using my laptop while in my car. It's something that I don't relish and would rather avoid. However, there was something that NEEDED to be done and so here I am, having finished what needed to be done, hooking up to send/receive mails...... while my mail-server (official) is slow, I'm here on Gmail, catching up.
There's a huge traffic jam, I'm close to Matunga - and there's a BEST bus behind my car. BEST drivers have this tendency to honk.
I don't mean "honk" .............
I mean the "honk-honk-honk-honk-honk-
You know how it is! There's stand still traffic all around, either due to a red light or a traffic jam but many (would I be right in saying "most"?) BEST drivers just feel compelled to honk. Sometimes I am tempted to get out of my car and steal the rubber balloon horn that BEST buses have!! I think the driver will be UNABLE to drive if I do that!! I mean, the guys don't have patience??
Another feature on our roads - motorbike riders "creating" space to wriggle through between the narrowest of openings. There I am, in my car, close to another vehicle with hardly six inches between my vehicle and the next and a mobike noses in, usually with two seated..... the rider manoeuvres his handlebars first this way, then that way, leaves a scratch on my door or "gently" bangs into my rear view mirror, gives my driver and me a goofy smile/grin as if to say "I'm sorry" and keeps going to the next six inch gap five feet ahead.... and there WE are, patiently waiting for the jam to clear.... when THAT finally happens a hundred cars leap forward, revving up to 60 or 80 or even 100 kmph rushing headlong in a mad scramble to the next traffic jam. I'm in a tearing hurry, see, the next jam's just ahead - cannot aford to miss that, now, can I?
Speaking of "patience" or the lack of it - this time, too, once more, I was in a minority of Mumbaikars that voted. Last time around, for the Lok Sabha elections I reached the voting venue around noon and had to wait for about 2 hours. So, this time, I beat the crowd. Reached the booth at 9. Problem was, everyone else too beat the crowd!! So, there we all were, waiting again for a good hour and a half! The saving grace was since it was morning, the heat wasn't as bad as the last time around...
Most of the voters were, as was to be expected, from the poorer sections. (Why dow we middle/upper classes not vote as much as we complain? - A separate topic that). They (and, with them, I) waited patiently. Many of them in fact were having a good time meeting old acquaintances, enjoying some private jokes, well meaning jokes at each others' expense... not exactly a carnival but a general air of bonhomie. One jarring note - a little ahead of me a well dressed person, apparently not having "budgeted" for the long queue kept cribbing about "how slow" this was.
She first complained to the lady ahead of her. She then complained to the man behind her. Kerchief flutering, waving ineffectually at her worries, she then caught a passing polling official and berated him for the slow speed. She said "I'm waiting in this queue for 30 minutes". The official moved on without even looking at her. THAT got her agitated even more and a few seconds later she caught a police constable on duty and told HIM "I'm waiting in this queue for 45 minutes now, why don't you people do something??"
I was amused that within a few seconds she was able to expand her notion of time from 30 minutes to 45 - Einstein couldn't crack this cosmic puzzle but she did in a flash! Anyway, her impatience was quelled when the havaldar fixed one baleful eye on her and cracked in Marathi "Oh, Madam, arada orada karu naka, tumhala vote karaicha tar kara. Nahi tar tumhi ghari jaa. Maajha doka khaaoon naka" (Oh, Madam, don't just stand around making noises. If you wish to vote, vote - if not just go home and shut up. Don't eat my head!)
and sauntered off..... silence prevailed for a while.
Patiently, we waited, to vote - patiently for politicians who promise what we all know is our right but is merely a dream. Where is that BEST driver? I want him to get after our legislators and honk-honk-honk-honk-honk......
Sats
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