Traffic
"Traffic!" A word which we see almost everyday in the newspapers. Flesh trafficking, child trafficking , arms trafficking and the worst of all...drug trafficking. Bastards take away the invaluable stuff from our country to trade with others. But here the blog is on which most of us go through everyday ....(literally) . Just traffic or vehicular traffic if your minds have got clouded by the word "drugs" above.
As usual I was ready to get to office but almost 10 minutes late not from the usual time but what I target to leave at everyday. I pull my bike making a plan for the lost time to reach the office on time (again a moving target :) ) . Vesturing a racer's spirit I start my bike imagining how I would be looking on the bike from all camera angles as if it were to be a movie. An involuntary thinking phenomenon as a result of being a movie freak.
With all set I reach the first signal of my route in no time. But from here on you are in the line of action. The signal is red and vehicles are not moving much to my surprise. (Read the sentence again ). At any signal any two wheeler's motive would be to try to reach the front of the halted traffic even if it means to get on to the opposite one way. They say if your will is strong no roadblocks can stop you. Only problem is that they become a roadblock for the incoming traffic if the opposite traffic lights turn green. Vehicles to all sides are in the middle of the junction fighting their way out . Profanity is at its peak. Somehow I get out of the junction and try to speed away through the empty road as most of the vehicles are stuck behind.
Lured by this rare situation of a pune road I open the throttle to reach 60 and suddenly the rickshaw who was charging at more or less the same speed comes to a halt all of a sudden. It was nothing but somebody had waved him to hire the rickshaw. This is part of the instant response system of pune rickshaws because if he gets a little late there is a good chance that an empty rickshaw behind him could get that customer. Other vehicles dont give a damn and are charging ahead as if in a bull race. Swearing at him I speed away to regain my pilot position of the charging traffic. If Americans were to watch this through a spy satellite it would definitely look like a barbarian war down here. Vehicles at such impatient speeds to jostle down a defensive battalion in front of them.
Just as I am about to regain my position, a lady from an alley suddenly enters the main road with no signal. Forget the signal , she herself doesn't know how many vehicles are coming and at what speed. Outraged I honk for so long that it would have drained half the battery. But she doesn't seem to have heard all that. Thanks to the mummy outfit. Oh yes, you heard it right. Lady riders in pune wrap themselves from head to toe with no amount of skin exposed something like a militant. If real militants were to pass pune on bikes the only thing noticed would be the overgrown ladies :) .
Keeping my balance I manage to stay on the road and reach the flyover. The 100 feet road suddenly reduces to 50. The trick here is to stay in the middle so that you are the first when you enter the bottle neck. The rest of the 50 feet part of the flyover has been under construction from past four years and expected date of completion is not released due to discrepancies.
Apparently the two official astrologers of the civic department are having a tiff over their estimation and the same and will be released only after they reach at a consensus. The completed flyover has its own architectural magnificence too. Its constructed in a Z shape when the actual path below is straight. No sane engineer would be able to find the reason behind this mystery design.
Finishing the fly-over next to cross is the most dreaded signal. Waiting at this signal motorists have had breakdowns . Its a solvable bottle neck but our civic department likes to have some fun seeing the joke everyday. The bottleneck is created by water tankers who fill water occupying half the road. But water is more important than this chaos. So none raises a question. Waiting for 15 minutes for our turn to escape this point I enter the final leg of the public road which leads to the esteemed IT park and the last leg of misery. It appears like a 4 lane highway but if you measure it, it will be only 30 feet. To top that rickshaws and trucks are parked towards the sides. sometimes even double parked leaving only bicycle to move lavishly on the roads. This is their own way of encouraging others to switch to the non-polluting mode of transport.
Cutting through all kinds of vehicles (from trucks to bullock carts) I finally reach my office with an anticipatory joy of getting into the Air conditioned building. It is some reward for the survived soldier. Camouflaged clothes with pollutants and smoke all over the skin I look nothing less than a soldier.
Estimates say there are at least 10 accident deaths in Pune everyday. I would like to call them KIAs.
As usual I was ready to get to office but almost 10 minutes late not from the usual time but what I target to leave at everyday. I pull my bike making a plan for the lost time to reach the office on time (again a moving target :) ) . Vesturing a racer's spirit I start my bike imagining how I would be looking on the bike from all camera angles as if it were to be a movie. An involuntary thinking phenomenon as a result of being a movie freak.
With all set I reach the first signal of my route in no time. But from here on you are in the line of action. The signal is red and vehicles are not moving much to my surprise. (Read the sentence again ). At any signal any two wheeler's motive would be to try to reach the front of the halted traffic even if it means to get on to the opposite one way. They say if your will is strong no roadblocks can stop you. Only problem is that they become a roadblock for the incoming traffic if the opposite traffic lights turn green. Vehicles to all sides are in the middle of the junction fighting their way out . Profanity is at its peak. Somehow I get out of the junction and try to speed away through the empty road as most of the vehicles are stuck behind.
Lured by this rare situation of a pune road I open the throttle to reach 60 and suddenly the rickshaw who was charging at more or less the same speed comes to a halt all of a sudden. It was nothing but somebody had waved him to hire the rickshaw. This is part of the instant response system of pune rickshaws because if he gets a little late there is a good chance that an empty rickshaw behind him could get that customer. Other vehicles dont give a damn and are charging ahead as if in a bull race. Swearing at him I speed away to regain my pilot position of the charging traffic. If Americans were to watch this through a spy satellite it would definitely look like a barbarian war down here. Vehicles at such impatient speeds to jostle down a defensive battalion in front of them.
Just as I am about to regain my position, a lady from an alley suddenly enters the main road with no signal. Forget the signal , she herself doesn't know how many vehicles are coming and at what speed. Outraged I honk for so long that it would have drained half the battery. But she doesn't seem to have heard all that. Thanks to the mummy outfit. Oh yes, you heard it right. Lady riders in pune wrap themselves from head to toe with no amount of skin exposed something like a militant. If real militants were to pass pune on bikes the only thing noticed would be the overgrown ladies :) .
Keeping my balance I manage to stay on the road and reach the flyover. The 100 feet road suddenly reduces to 50. The trick here is to stay in the middle so that you are the first when you enter the bottle neck. The rest of the 50 feet part of the flyover has been under construction from past four years and expected date of completion is not released due to discrepancies.
Apparently the two official astrologers of the civic department are having a tiff over their estimation and the same and will be released only after they reach at a consensus. The completed flyover has its own architectural magnificence too. Its constructed in a Z shape when the actual path below is straight. No sane engineer would be able to find the reason behind this mystery design.
Finishing the fly-over next to cross is the most dreaded signal. Waiting at this signal motorists have had breakdowns . Its a solvable bottle neck but our civic department likes to have some fun seeing the joke everyday. The bottleneck is created by water tankers who fill water occupying half the road. But water is more important than this chaos. So none raises a question. Waiting for 15 minutes for our turn to escape this point I enter the final leg of the public road which leads to the esteemed IT park and the last leg of misery. It appears like a 4 lane highway but if you measure it, it will be only 30 feet. To top that rickshaws and trucks are parked towards the sides. sometimes even double parked leaving only bicycle to move lavishly on the roads. This is their own way of encouraging others to switch to the non-polluting mode of transport.
Cutting through all kinds of vehicles (from trucks to bullock carts) I finally reach my office with an anticipatory joy of getting into the Air conditioned building. It is some reward for the survived soldier. Camouflaged clothes with pollutants and smoke all over the skin I look nothing less than a soldier.
Estimates say there are at least 10 accident deaths in Pune everyday. I would like to call them KIAs.
posted by WriteHanded at 11:06 PM
4 Comments:
Fantastic writing bro! Articulation couldn't get any better. Hats off! :-)
Amazingly expressed :)
paclot :-> Thanks man.
Anonymous :-> Thanks
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