Traffic Managers show the way!

It's rush hour. There's traffic everywhere, buses overloaded, all set to topple. Bikes are in a frenzy, cars impatient, bicycles cornered and pedestrians trapped right in the middle of the roads in their futile efforts to cross over. Squealing brakes, blaring horns, gushing smoke, heat, dust, the smell of fuel all over in the air almost nauseating . . . a typical scene in any metro or even a suburb in the peak hours of the mornings.

It does take brave hearts to block the burgeoning traffic flowing dangerously, almost breaching the banks of the road. And it was evident this morning that our Nation does have a lot of brave hearts. Amidst all the commotion, a couple of traffic constables were busy at work, blocking the traffic, barricading the road and . . . drawing lines on speed breakers! What I loved the most in the scene was their having chosen such an auspicious time for the ritual - a demonstration of how India is a blend of the traditional and the modern! With all the buzz about 'Flying Roads' and 'Underground Rails', India still respects the nuances of astrology when it comes to matters that are as critial and crucial as marking speed breakers with white paint! Apparently, the Traffic Department must be having its own in-house astrologer who predicts the most auspicious of times of the day and dictates which roads are to be targetted. It is definitely admirable that the Traffic Department never got distracted by logic or science and trashed such intangible, insignificant considerations as 'peak hour traffic'. It was evident that they firmly believed no Road Work was to be done at nights, which is the time of the demons!

Kudos to the Metro Development Authorities; these acts reinforce our beliefs in you, about your capabilities in managing relatively simpler tasks as 'Metro Rails' or 'Complex Flyovers' to ease traffic congestions; you have been brave in the face of such herculean challenges as putting up barricades and creating art works on the roads, testing the tolerance levels of commuters simultaneously.