Author: PB

A Zebra Crossing is called so not because any Zebras are crossing, but because the lines on the road look like the patterns on a Zebra….

And they are painted on the road, on the traffic lights so that people can walk on them when the light is red for traffic and they have to cross the road…

Now picture this…

The light is red…
There is a STOP LINE as well just next to the Zebra Crossing…
AND…

All the vehicles have stopped at the STOP LINE… none of them seem to be in a hurry… they are calm and waiting for the light to turn green… the pedestrians are walking across… and even after 30 seconds, the vehicles which includes some taxies, some two wheelers, a bus and a few rickshaws, are still there behind the stop line… just the way they stopped some half a minute back…

This was the scene in Kolkata on most of the traffic lights I crossed in Saturday and Sunday… Hats off to this behavior…

Sunday evening… back in Delhi… do I even need to tell you how the scene was…?

A big change was the attitude of the driver of the cab… while my cabbies in Kolkata were courteous and humble all the time… this guy did not know how to talk to customers…

Come a red light… and no one even probably knows that there is a STOP line… and they keep moving an inch ahead every second… and as soon as the red light turns green… they move like a bullet out of a gun… not bothering about anyone in front… God Save the pedestrians…

There used to be a no-tolerance zone on the road connecting Pragati Maidan to Mandi House Round-about… and I saw a lot of people behaving there… dunno what happened to it.. or the other no-tolerance zones in the city… do you know of any such zones in Delhi?

I am not saying that the traffic in Kolkata is any better then in Delhi… but the basic ethics of the road, at least how to behave on Traffic Lights is something that Delhi can learn from Kolkata…

A lot of times, I surprise myself by not speaking about whats troubling me… there was a time when I used to look around for support, to share, to depend, look for someone to listen to me when I was in a bad mad mood… but over the last couple of years, I think I have changed a lot in terms of my needs for emotional dependence… I feel its for my good, at the same time this leaves me a lot emotionless when it comes to the rest of the world…

Life is good… more like the journey in a boat… i can sit back and relax…. but thats not what I am… I am not the kinda person who can sit back and relax for a long time…

might be contd….

Journeys in boats can really get boring after a while… when you get onboard the first time, the movement of the boat is exciting… the way it moves over the waves is smooth too… and you might want to just sit on the edge enjoying the water… but after a while, it all gets too repetitive… not exciting, normal, routine… and that is when, you want to walk again, you want to browse through the traffic on the road too… or you want to change the boat or the water…

One of the other alternatives is…. Rafting… leaves you all wet and high on energy even after a tiring one on one with water….

After an evening of passionate making out, Aviral went to drop Nisha back to her PG…. both of them had always enjoyed being together, but for the last few occasions the talks had taken a back seat… infact both of them were now avoiding talking thinking that it might rather would lead to only arguments… but still they loved each other a li’il too much to stay away… maybe….

But this silence was for sure not comforting or making things better… so one of them had to speak up… Nisha did…

“I am not really happy these days…”

*Shit I have to drive back 30 kms and she had to pick up this time to talk…*”Why what happened?”

“Oh C’mon… don’t tell me that you do not know what is happening. Things have changed between us Aviral, they are not the same anymore… we do not talk much… the conversations have dried down… there is no excitement in your voice when I call, which happens most of the time… and you are telling me that you do not know what is happening?”

“I did not mean that, I am not prepared to get into a discussion right now…”

“Then when Aviral, we have been avoiding to talk about it for a long time now…”

“Umm… sometime later… but not today”…*I should not be doing this, this really needs a talk…* “Can we talk later please?”

“Suit yourself, but I do not think that later is going to come soon…. Let’s discuss it and get it over with”

“What do you mean get it over with? Nisha, what are you thinking?”

“I am thinking that it’s better to call everything off and live our lives, if communication is not happening…What do you think?”

*This is getting worse now…* “Look things are not that bad to tell you the truth… But it looks like we do not have that kinda chemistry anymore… Something is missing, I can’t understand what… but something is. I do not feel the need to call you anymore. Not that I do not want to talk, but then whenever I pick up the phone, there is nothing to talk about… I have started looking for a reason to talk to you, and in absence of these reasons, I do not have any words to share with you…”

“I know all this Aviral, but the question is: What should be done to take care of this? Are we drifting apart to never get together again?”

“May be…. I gotta go right now. Let’s talk later.”

And the good night hug, which was more like a formality…. and the day, is over… has something of this sort happened with you ever? I guess it has… it happened with me not in its entirety though…

But then what do you do with relationships that loose the sizzle after a while… this “after a while” can be a week, a month, a year or whatever… but i think a phase like this always comes in a relationship…

What would you have done if you were Nisha or Aviral?

I am really angry over a few things I have been watching over the last few days/weeks…

~ All hell broke loose when the Govt. Officials were sealing property in East Delhi… The people were out on the streets, damaging all the public properly they could lay their hands on… Wonderful display of ownership for your own stuff and a pathetic display of ownership for the city/state/country you live in… And most of these guys who I saw on television breaking the cars, dividers etc looked like the young boys who were doing it just for fun… afterall, why would anyone laugh their fucking ass out when they are throwing stones on a Fire Truck!!! Some bunch of Assholes… and to top it all, the local politicians were feeling more then proud when they said that it was not the people from their constituency who did it… they were “bad elements” from outside!!! Ha CRAP!!!

~ We are still struggling to get Bharti Yadav back in India and we are still struggling to prove the guilty, guilty in the Jessica Lal Case, and did I forget the Priyadarshini Matto Case? and till the time all the damn News Channels would continue making money by showing their exclusif coverage or the letters, the tapes, the interviews etc etc etc… And did they forget to run a SMS contest for any of these cases? I guess they did…

~ The best of all cases IS: The INDIAN Parliament is attacked, and the person who is apparently guilty of the act is given a death sentence… phew… some judgments are passed… and then what happens!!! One entire state along with its politicians stand up against the death sentence and request the President for a softer sentence… the people in Kashmir take on the streets, they throw stones at the police, and there is a bandh in the city!!! Why because they want to save someone who wanted to kill a few people in the Parliament… sometimes I really think they the militants should not have been killed, they should have been allowed to enter the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, and kill 100% of the so called Netas…. this is all so disgusting!!!

Ok… for people who did not know why I was not around:
I was fighting a battle with Viral Fever the entire last week, and am back in office today 🙂

And for everyone…
I am feeling much better after a hectic resting schedule… I get so tired of getting this rest thing!!!

Have a ton to write about today and in the next few days!!! Come back for more if you have managed to read this post!!!