On 30th July, 2010 at two in the afternoon my mother was making yogurt (Raita). She was short of Boondi (Gram Flour) so she ordered an unemployed like me to bring it for her from the nearby market. Luckily, the clouds were out too and were showering my place. For an opportunist this was an occasion to make the most of it. And so I was out in the middle to be embraced by those dark clouds to be one among their devotees.
But it was surely disappointing to encounter that almost half the market was closed. Water was not flowing but has chocked the small lanes and Galis. The day to day activity was walloped and people have taken shelter and sitting with Idle Hands. Small Roads were getting jammed and there was a constant barking of horns. The ugly and filthy place looks uglier. You cannot even walk because of the mess on the streets.
For Delhiites, who were literally dying due to the unmerciful sun and filling buckets of sweat, this could’ve been the heaven moment. But what it looks like, that downpour made their life more miserable. At least, a bright day allows them to work but everything looks abyss when it rains. In the economic times language, when rains come the common man thinks that the recession of high temperature is over but after a few moments of chik chik and zhikk zhikk (mess because of it) he realizes that it’s not a U shape recession but a W shaped.
All my observations gives me a feeling that monsoon in India is nothing but akin to worst moments of a terrorist attack, notorious war of Naxalite or the government born Emergency and Bharat Bandh. And in these moments the common man is requested (in fact forced) to stay at home, stop all the activities, shutter down shops and offices, keep the cars in the parking and wait till the atmosphere becomes normal (i.e. rainwater flows down the poky piped gutters). In fact this is just the beginning of a crisis. When halted at home they are forced to tolerate the ubiquitous power cuts and blackouts. This is because India is famous for “when rain uncle comes, electricity aunty goes”.
Now because of all such heinous acts of the government almost half the population is buried at home but what about the other half who is at the office and vigorous to celebrate the monsoon? I mean Government of India can’t see them leaving their offices early and visiting India Gate, Connaught Place, Lodi Garden, meeting their girlfriends/boyfriends and their relatives after a long time. So the best option is to cramp the hippies like them into a situation which leaves them hopeless and with no option. So we witness boundless traffic jams on all sides of the road, traffic lights saying goodbye and rain water filling every pothole. The nadir moment arrives when the last drop of the fuel is consumed resulting in breakdown of several engines on the road and retrograding the situation.
At this I remember of my friend who works at Greater Noida. One rainy night he found himself in a bus which was amid a huge traffic jam where nothing was movable. The happy ending was that the bus broke down. A complete mess on the road with every car occupying every space made him handicapped and the dude had no option but to rely on his natural wheels (legs) to walk 3 Km till Dhaula Kaun. The good thing was that in the process he made several friends. Because hundred’s of commuters who faced the same problem joined him in between. Somebody said “if you want to go fast go alone (as cars did) but if you want to go far then go together as he did”.
I can’t even estimate that how many people invectively swore on such disdainful nights, how many hearts burned, how many blood vessels swelled and how many plans were hanged in gallows without seeing the day of the light. But I do know one thing that most of the car owners must have cursed other car owners and must have blamed them for this mess on the roads of Delhi. And almost every one must have cursed the present government in power for ruining their day and their life. This thought must have entered millions of minds, that “when the capital of a country growing at 9.4% per annum is in such degradable state that even a little gift from nature can turn the whole system and infrastructure up-down and can gift us losses worth of crores then what about the rest of the country”.
According to my notion, neither Delhi nor this country is ready for a car/person because we can’t afford it. Please use the still to be developed public transport system as much as you can and save your plans from being crushed by others. And we can’t blame the unabashed government every time because it is already blamed too much and it shows no signs of improvement. We the people of India are both the problem and a solution of this country.
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"The article was written at authors home"
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