RULES

2006-03-18T00:32:00.000-08:00

Bhola woke up with a smile on his face. This was going to be a special day. He walked over, pressed the toothpaste from the bottom and squeezed it onto his brush, exactly the quantity demonstrated on the carton and religiously brushed his teeth. He never understood why his teeth never shone like in the carton. He had given up pondering about it. Or the fact of why his shaving cream, brush and razor would never give that smooth feel even when all the instructions were followed to the word.

He made his maggi noodles, still hoping that someday, the vegetables that appeared in the cover would be present in it. He had followed all instructions in the pack. He determined to include it in his list of ‘Life’s little mysteries’

He got ready and left for work. Today was a big day. His company had decided to gift him a car. He was very excited about it. To prepare for the day, he had completed his driving lessons meticulously, read all the traffic rules and regulations, memorized all the traffic signs and learnt all about the roads and driving on it. He also observed in the signposts on the roads and many of them said – Always move on green light only. He chuckled. He obviously knew that. Everybody obviously knew that. The people who put that were a bunch of fools who might have had paints and brushes and no other work at hand, he mused.

There was to be a small ceremony and the COO of the company would be presenting him the key to his new car, a brand new Maruthi Alto. Bhola spent a week reading the manual of the car and digested its contents. He was now ready to DRIVE.
He put his car onto neutral gear, pressed down the brake and the clutch, and keyed it on. Releasing the hand brake, Bhola slowly pressed the accelerator while releasing the clutch. And as the vehicle moved forward and the speedometer acquired the speed for second gear, he pushed it onto it and later to third gear and started his drive to office.

He switched from third to second gear for every pothole and pedestrian and switched back to third after crossing them. He was enjoying himself thoroughly when he got a shock. A two wheeler overtook him from the left. He had read the rules well and knew that that was never supposed to happen. He took it in his stride and continued when suddenly a pedestrian walked in front of his car from nowhere. He had a jolt out of his sudden brake, but managed just in time.

He was appalled by what everybody was doing. Cyclists were alternating between the footpath and road depending on the traffic. Vehicles that wanted to take a right turn kept to the left of the road and vehicles taking the left turn kept to the right of the road. And he found a new signal followed by the two-wheeler drivers. They overtook him from the left, till they rode in front of his car, turned their face sideways to the right and took a right turn. Whatever happened to hand signals and indicators, he wondered.

When two vehicles met at a crossroad, the decision of who had to go first was determined by the blink of the eye or a nod of the head. No headlights and no signals again. People got off buses at all places but the bus stop. He was learning or unlearning his traffic rule book. Then there was this traffic policeman, who kept signaling the vehicles to move forward when the signal was green anyway. Maybe he was responsible for clearing the obstacle of air that blocked the vehicles. Strange, he thought.

When he stopped at a signal where the orange light just changed to red, there were several noisy drivers behind murmuring epitaphs or showing him their palms. He was perplexed. You were supposed to move only while green. How could everybody be cross with him for following his rule book? One car even bumped into him when he stopped that way. Bhola was terrified and wanted to get off the road very soon.

There was just one more signal to cross before reaching the office and then he would be safe. He carefully maneuvered his way till the signal when he saw the green changing to Orange. He saw a huge truck menacingly advancing in his rear view mirror. He clenched his teeth, prayed to the almighty and pressed the accelerator and crossed the signal and entered his office gate, braked and heaved a sigh of relief when there was a knock on the window.

A traffic policeman said – “Sir, you violated a traffic rule. This is the fine to pay for the same” Bhola had already fainted.

Anand Rao circle...

2006-03-18T00:12:00.000-08:00

He took his bright white crisp, neatly pressed white shirt and examined it again before wearing it. He put on the khakhi cap and admired himself in the mirror. After a slight adjustment, he put on his neatly polished shoes and rode his Yamaha to his workplace, a stark contrast to his neat appearance. He parked his bike and assumed his position in the middle of the road at Anand Rao circle, one of the busiest junctions in Bangalore city.

Being very early, he studied the trucks and the buses that arrived from other towns that passed through the roads silently, like ants in a line. He took stock of the situation. The small boy at the nearby tea shop came running with the small tiny glass of tea. After drinking his tea, he took over the command and control of the road.

He was to direct all the business tycoons, the school and college-goers, the employees, the tourists to their destination. He would monitor the two-way traffic deftly and with a swift motion of his hand, manage to stop and allow the traffic. He managed it so efficiently that word had it that not even ten other traffic policemen would not be able to do his job that he did single-handedly.

His superiors often sent some junior traffic policemen to train under him. He had no idea why, but none of them seemed to grasp what had to be done and how to do their job. They were either rude to the drivers. Or let a lot of traffic clog up or forget about the pedestrians’ need to cross the road altogether. It was a matter of days before he gave up on them and sent them back to their offices requesting for some other road to manage.

The number of vehicles on the road kept increasing and the cycles that greeted him dwindled down to a countable number. The cars and the bikes dominated the roads. Even the BTS buses that dominated the roads were so few in number compared to the other vehicles. The autos with the green horns that made the funny sound and went chuck-chuck were replaced by smart rear engine autos that came with self-start, elegant horns and graduate drivers.

The city had changed. He could always know the pulse of the city by a sampling of the road he was posted on. He had mixed feelings regarding it. The smoke that filled the air due to the increase in vehicles made his lungs choke. He rarely took off his air purifier.

There was a lot of hue and cry about the anand rao circle but he never understood why people were making so much of a fuss. They made it a one-way soon. His job became simpler, but the challenge was missing. Still, he went on with it religiously. This was the place he had known and monitored all his life and he would never ever leave it.

There were rumours that the airport road traffic was becoming unmanageable and a single traffic policeman like him would help ease the situation a little. His superiors persuaded him to leave the place but he clung onto it like a baby clinging to it’s mother. He would quit his job altogether before changing.

Anand Rao circle was still mentioned frequently in the papers and not a week passed by without somebody complaining about it. The government changed. There was some mention of something called a flyover.

There were some constructions going on. His job became challenging again. He had to direct and monitor traffic around the construction area and take care of the workers’ there too.

He woke up the next morning. The headlines screamed – Anand Rao circle flyover to be inaugurated by the CM today. So many were elated by this. Not him. He slowly went to the window and looked outside. He could not bring himself to go there. It was too much to bear. All the familiarity, all that command and respect it had given him in his young days. It was too hard to go there and realize that it didn’t need him anymore.

He was assigned a new posting. Everybody told him that change is the only thing that is permanent and one must learn to embrace it. It was all so easy to say. They hadn’t been in his place. They didn’t know what it felt like and would never know. He contemplated quitting his job and going back to his village. He had no idea what became of his house in the village or the farm they owned. He hadn’t taken a day off and hence didn’t know. How would they know what he felt, he wondered. How would they ever understand?

He didn’t feel like going to his new posting. He stood outside near his bike and lingered for a minute longer. He revved the engine to life and rode off to his new assignment.

Reflections en route..

RULES

Anand Rao circle...