Then and Now
1997 -
A young man riding down the road with his hair fluttering against his forehead and a happy smile. He looks around him and finds these girls everywhere on the side walkways. He takes great pleasure in smiling at them and they smile back, for he is one sweet chap who reflects happiness.
It is yet another day when the young man sets out on his way to the college and is riding down the road on his bike and is continuing his routine of smiling at the girls he sees walking by the side of the road.
He suddenly spots radiance like never before. His eyes stop at one place. His body moves relative to his eye sight and he keeps staring at the most wonderful sight that he has ever witnessed. He enters a trance. He feels the aura and the freshness around the object that has captivated him completely. For once, he actually feels like stopping and heading towards it.
What is it?
I better rephrase it before I get jacked by some irrelevant organizations.
Who is it?
Thats the right question.
She is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. He feels that he should float in the air and then travel his way to her hair and slide down them, while breathing in the fresh scent of her hair. Then swing his way using her hair to her shoulder, stand on her shoulders and admire her flawless skin and the comlexion. He delves deeper into his imagination and her beauty.
Screeeeeeeeeeecccccchhhhh!!!!!!!!
Tyres skidding, and smoke coming out of them leaving trails of burnt rubber on the road.
What happened?
Nothing to worry. He is not dead.
Our lover boy had strayed a bit too much to his left and was nearing the footpath. Mind you he was still on the road. The other person had stepped down from the footpath and was walking on the road along the footpath. Lover boy was extremely upset and frustrated that people do not have the common sense to make use of the utilities according to their defined purpose.
What followed was a conversation between our young man and yet another young man who almost got him killed as he was walking on the road. Our lover boy almost knocked him down and starts questioning him as to why he was walking on the road when there is a footpath meant solely for pedestrians. Why should he walk on the road when there is so much space exclusively for those who want to walk?
The sad part is, he lost all the smiles that girls were giving him that day as they all witnessed the anger and frustration which was evident on his face.
Poor fellow.
2007 -
There is no lover boy story here. This is my own story. Rather, this is something I witnessed myself yesterday. In fact, I have been witnessing this since the time I started my work for the internship. I have to commute 15 kilometres one way every day and get to witness a lot of fun and different antics by people on the move.
I was stuck in a really bad traffic jam at one junction and was almost a kilometre from the signal. I was on my two wheeler right next to the footpath. I was looking at the glowsign boards on the shops that were like 30 feet away from me. The footpath stretched to around 10 feet. I was trying to read the things on the boards through my helmet and was finding it really irritating. I had focussed all my attention on the letters and was oblivious to everything else. There were people walking on the footpath and were proud of the fact because I am sure as hell that they were travelling at a faster rate than the people with their vehicles.
Suddenly, I hear lot of honking, and at the same time I observe lot of unrest among the pedestrians. Before I realize what was happening, I saw people on two wheelers riding down the footpath and the pedestrians had to move out of their way. I mean, it was ridiculous. The footpath is supposed to be exclusively meant for pedestrians. I mean, it does not make sense for people to drive down the footpath. And here I was witnessing this insanity.
I witness this everyday. People trying to save on time by driving down the footpaths and there is absolutely no space for pedestrians to walk. Incessant honking, pollution adding to the pedestrians woes and unrest among the motorists and people shouting at one another and trying to get ahead of one another in this rat race is really frightening.
This time around, it would have been the fictitous lover boy from 1997 who would have been the cause for unrest and the poor fellow who was walking, the victim.
Times change, don't they?
A young man riding down the road with his hair fluttering against his forehead and a happy smile. He looks around him and finds these girls everywhere on the side walkways. He takes great pleasure in smiling at them and they smile back, for he is one sweet chap who reflects happiness.
It is yet another day when the young man sets out on his way to the college and is riding down the road on his bike and is continuing his routine of smiling at the girls he sees walking by the side of the road.
He suddenly spots radiance like never before. His eyes stop at one place. His body moves relative to his eye sight and he keeps staring at the most wonderful sight that he has ever witnessed. He enters a trance. He feels the aura and the freshness around the object that has captivated him completely. For once, he actually feels like stopping and heading towards it.
What is it?
I better rephrase it before I get jacked by some irrelevant organizations.
Who is it?
Thats the right question.
She is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. He feels that he should float in the air and then travel his way to her hair and slide down them, while breathing in the fresh scent of her hair. Then swing his way using her hair to her shoulder, stand on her shoulders and admire her flawless skin and the comlexion. He delves deeper into his imagination and her beauty.
Screeeeeeeeeeecccccchhhhh!!!!!!!!
Tyres skidding, and smoke coming out of them leaving trails of burnt rubber on the road.
What happened?
Nothing to worry. He is not dead.
Our lover boy had strayed a bit too much to his left and was nearing the footpath. Mind you he was still on the road. The other person had stepped down from the footpath and was walking on the road along the footpath. Lover boy was extremely upset and frustrated that people do not have the common sense to make use of the utilities according to their defined purpose.
What followed was a conversation between our young man and yet another young man who almost got him killed as he was walking on the road. Our lover boy almost knocked him down and starts questioning him as to why he was walking on the road when there is a footpath meant solely for pedestrians. Why should he walk on the road when there is so much space exclusively for those who want to walk?
The sad part is, he lost all the smiles that girls were giving him that day as they all witnessed the anger and frustration which was evident on his face.
Poor fellow.
2007 -
There is no lover boy story here. This is my own story. Rather, this is something I witnessed myself yesterday. In fact, I have been witnessing this since the time I started my work for the internship. I have to commute 15 kilometres one way every day and get to witness a lot of fun and different antics by people on the move.
I was stuck in a really bad traffic jam at one junction and was almost a kilometre from the signal. I was on my two wheeler right next to the footpath. I was looking at the glowsign boards on the shops that were like 30 feet away from me. The footpath stretched to around 10 feet. I was trying to read the things on the boards through my helmet and was finding it really irritating. I had focussed all my attention on the letters and was oblivious to everything else. There were people walking on the footpath and were proud of the fact because I am sure as hell that they were travelling at a faster rate than the people with their vehicles.
Suddenly, I hear lot of honking, and at the same time I observe lot of unrest among the pedestrians. Before I realize what was happening, I saw people on two wheelers riding down the footpath and the pedestrians had to move out of their way. I mean, it was ridiculous. The footpath is supposed to be exclusively meant for pedestrians. I mean, it does not make sense for people to drive down the footpath. And here I was witnessing this insanity.
I witness this everyday. People trying to save on time by driving down the footpaths and there is absolutely no space for pedestrians to walk. Incessant honking, pollution adding to the pedestrians woes and unrest among the motorists and people shouting at one another and trying to get ahead of one another in this rat race is really frightening.
This time around, it would have been the fictitous lover boy from 1997 who would have been the cause for unrest and the poor fellow who was walking, the victim.
Times change, don't they?
5 comments:
Funny you wrote this now.. I'm having a _really_ hard time remembering to cross the road only when the walk signal is green.. Jaywalking is an offense here, btw! And the cars, they virtually come to a standstill at _every_ junction, because apparently they *must* give pedestrians right of way.. so there have been many embarrassing situations where I'm at a cross, and wait for a car to zoom by, but the car stops and I don't know what to do :)
Bangalore is crazy in terms of traffic and insane driving. I must be giving myself 800 style points in NFSU - I've had atleast 8 near misses already!
really... i went thru similar incident yesterday. a scooter honking wildly while i was strolling... on a footpath!
After having read the first half of the post, I thought you were having a go at Chevrolet's rather amusing "SparK" advertisement :) the one where the car winks at the girls...turned out to be quite different but equally amusing!! I know I put myself at great physical risk by saying this, but when it comes to traffic, congestion, pollution etc etc, Hyd scores over B'lore, in a big way!
the first part was really trippy!
Written in typical IIT-fart-session-sarcastic kind of way. Good fun.
As for the second bit, "thinking out of the box" and optimization are ingarined in our mentality it seems.
I have seen a line of two wheelers driving on the footpath on the bridge on the Kotturpuram road during traffic jams! Beat that!
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