Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Common Sense.... Civic Sense.... It's a rare commodity!!!

Voltaire once said… “Common sense is not so common”... I have another adage that comes to mind… “Civic Sense is not so common…”…!!! And it’s so irritating to see footpaths being used as roads and roads as footpaths, people spitting all over the place, driving like dumbasses… I can go on and on…

This bus stop that I wait at in the morning for my colleague to pick me up is one that is not used frequently… not exactly abandoned but not one where buses stop… you get what I am saying right… anyways, so most days there are huge traffic jams in the morning because it’s one of the busiest roads… and traffic jams are so common in major cities in any case… so in order to avoid the jam on the road, certain brilliant minded people get this very bright idea of using the footpath into a road… like they get so thrilled at the prospect of riding a bike on the footpath that they almost race to get onto it…! And the heights of it is that they are least bothered about the people who walk on the footpath!! Yeah for once; when people use the footpath for what it is supposed to be used for, they are subjected to glares and honks and swear words from the bikers... like it’s their fathers’ wealth and the poor pedestrians are squandering it away… sorry for not-so-literal translation…

I mean I don’t understand why they should get angry because we are using the footpath for what it is meant for… everyone’s in their own hurry and everyone’s scurrying about like the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland … it’s not as though we are going for a leisure walk somewhere in the gardens of Babylonia… phew! And you know what, glaring back at the monkeys that ride on the footpath does not help you in any case; you cannot see their expressions behind the “batman-mask” that they call helmets… some of them in a bid to be sweet or nice or whatever you want to call it, have these sheepish ‘I-am-so-sorry-but-am-running-late” look on their face when you glare at them that gets you more irritated... but on the flip side it provides entertainment too… because the footpath is paved with stones, some of them come loose at times and then the balancing-juggling act that is exhibited is worth watching… something that will put all the acrobats and gymnasts to shame… lol..!! The number of times that a rider has slipped, lost his balance, almost fell, in turn causing the pillion rider to uphold his balance is countless… now that’s fun!!

Anyways, I can only gripe about it here now… But one day I will take a video of this damn thing and post it in all public/social forums possible and that’s a promise!!

5 comments:

  1. Reminds me of my Bangalore days..Was caught by cops(at Koramangala signal to be precise) for driving on the foot path and got fined :(
    Never repeated it..

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  2. @ Ashwin --> that ought to teach you to be safe than sorry ;-) how much did he fine you btw? :P

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  3. The funny thing is that I got fined thrice in that week... for 3 different traffic offences :D (Dint wear a helmet,Dint see the traffic police signal,driving on the foot path - wonder what i was thinking about)lost close to thousand bucks that week..thank god my driving licence is still intact..

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  4. My buddy, going doubles on bike in Bangalore (that obviously means, going on footpath) had this interesting line to be delivered to an elderly lady using a few sq cm of the same footpath (in a high tone) "Footpath iloode aano nadakkunnathu?!!"

    Another interesting line i heard on Radio. "In the rest of India, ppl drive on the left of the road. In Bangalore, ppl drive on what is left on the road" - a nice two-liner to draw an image of the road conditions in Bangalore.
    (Whoever said that should be given a free return trip - on road - to Kerala) :-D

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  5. Well, I clicked on post comment just to quote the same incident that Rat quoted first... the one abt "footpath -iloode aano nadakkunnathu" one...too late ;-p

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