The great indian traffic sense

When I write this (4th Apr 2015, 6:30 PM), my mind is overwhelmed by one thing. I had a few interesting things going on in office.. ranging from my own upgradation discussion to research on halogen oven (I know, this is what geeky gals do.. check for technology in beauty and cooking!!) but that isnt even ten percent of my interesting and adventurous day.. Guess what!!  My return trip from office to home, which is just about 4.5 kms has been so interesting, literally nothing, Dabangg salman to gossip on Deepika padukone on tv, nothing can take my mind off it. I ve had feelings ranging from sheer amusement to fear of death (not exaggerating, this happens on Pune roads) in this one trip.

Now let me tell you why i chose the title "the great indian traffic sense".
I ve seen " the great Indian" being used as a pre-fix for somethings genuinely... History, Mountains, Rivers, and for somethings cynically.. Politics (1st one I got on mind),movies (I go back and forth on this one) so on...,

The great Indian traffic sense makes so much sense to me, and yet again i try to define it in two phrases.. "Its simple" - There is no such thing as traffic rule, its chaos.. just try to live through it and get home...
" Yet complicated" - There is no such prediction as to what a certain segment of vehicle (2/3/4 wheeler) would do for a certain situation.

Today from the moment I got out of my company, till I have reached the safety of my apartment, I couldnt help but notice...

Atleast 10 motor bikes have cut the signal, gone in the opposite lane and honked at me for coming in their way.. took left turn just before me from right, made me brake my bicycle to death and didnt even notice me with my fear for life.

And I ve also seen an two top end sedans.. funny you can guess easily if the vehicle belongs to the owner or his father/boss who is an mla...

There is an audi parked in the middle of owner's area.. ROAD
And there is a new benz giving all the way to auto rickshaws.. (a dent on my car would be costlier than the auto riskshaw itself.. so why risk??)

And the honking..
It makes me wonder.. do we have this loudness culturally programmed in us??
Or are we genetically so impatient...
Honking ranges from car parked on sidewalk.. (Yeah police guy.. come and catch me!!/ My idiot wife.. How much time do you take to buy vegetables???)
to " I am on the wrong route and I dont give a damn about rules or my safety.. so if you want to live just get away!!!  this guy surely is or wants to be a don... why doesnt he choose the profession and let ppl on roads live??)

finally.. the relief and joy of coming home is so much more just because of the eventful jouney and it beats the worries and tensions of office.. what else do you need??

I really wish I took all these pics or videos and post them here.. But like I said,I was too busy  running(rather cycling) for my life..

Wish I could do something (anything really!!) about changing the great indian traffic..
But just like the history, the rivers, the mountains.. with all the complexity.. the great indian traffic carves its own course with its ultimate unpredictability and has crores of consequences..

And the phrase that works for all other great indian things.. works for this too.. It ll never change..



--- I signoff with a sigh.. hoping the best for all the great Indian entities..

The beautiful black jewel..

Once there was a lovely princess.
she was the favorite child of the king and was provided with all the luxury of the kingdom.
All the other kids loved her. Some for her beauty, some for her humor.
Some for her elegance, her virtue and her manner.

She was envied by the other princesses.
Some could sing better than her.
Some could dance better than her.
But no one understood why...
she was more enchanting than any other.

And thus the princess spent a wonderful time, in her beautiful palace..
she just lived her life, the way a river flows, the way a plant grows..
learning from the past.. gracing the present.. dreaming the future..
the destiny had written for her..


And one day she came across..
a beautiful black jewel..
Charming as it was..
brighter than a diamond..prettier than a pearl..

It stole her heart.. for she never saw such a beauty..
she admired it every second.. so much that she forgot her own duty..

Slowly, she forgot her kith n kin, who always wanted her around.
who always took care of her.. no matter what went wrong with the world.

she neglected her father...
and was no more interested in his rhymes..
all she wanted to do was..
to see and feel the jewel all the time..


Thus the time passed by..
and every one forgot her existence,,
her father was very worried though..
at this unexpected turn of events...

he wanted to teach her a lesson...
and enlighten her with the secret of happiness..
and so he sent her to prison..
where she had nothing but the jewel and darkness..


Where are you my jewel.. the princess cried..
but in all the darkness and vacuum.. she was soo afraid..
though she had her jewel, her life became nightmare..
but all the lifeless jewel could do was give her an empty stare..

and then she realised, the glitter which was soo amazing.
Without the light to see, all its beauty was just nothing.
She desperately cried, to be set free.
Her frens n her family.. she thought gave her the real glee..

All she wanted was.. to see a ray of sun..
to meet her kith n kin.. n hav a bit of fun..

Thus ends the story of princess..
as she realises the secret of happiness..
a diamond without light to see isnt as beautiful..
like a life widout well wishers to cheer you isnt that wonderful..

For the almost null set of ppl who read this..
This piece of horribly rhyming n weirdly sounding story is
dedicated to all the ppl...
who are probably.. enjoying an awesome time of life n money.. widout appreciating their parent's hardwork..
who are probably.. taking pride in their infinite wisdom.. widout thinking of the great profs who blessed them with it..
who are probably.. enjoying the beauty of nature.. widout even wondering how great the God had to be to gift it..
in short.. who are carried away like me.. as of now..
n as for me..
the black jewel is..... :) :() :P :/ :D hmm. thats a secret..

and yeah.. if u r wondering abt why i tried to rhyme it even a bit..
i thought a boring bit of story would atleast be better if it rhymes..  :P


thanks for wasting your time.. :)

secret of happiness

I have this blog account for quite some days.. but i never thought of writing a blog..
am really not that type.. the one who makes a really simple story an awesome one jus wid marvellous narrating capabilities..
but i m jus sharing this one.. coz i need to share it with ppl.. so that i wont forget it..
its neither an incident which has changed my life or someone else's.. nor a great achievement which makes me a celeb...
its just how my feelings changed.. from one extreme to other..
it was just a local bus journey from pune station to nigdi(my residence in bajaj auto).. when nothing actually happened.

so coming to the point.. i just sat in the bus.. being the first one to get in, i could choose my seat.
i walked from iskcon (by the way i got to this temple every saturday, just a way of keeping myself a bit spiritual..)
to station which is some half kilometer.. i worked too much this saturday.. the new project i started working on with all the complications
was interesting but tiresome. i somehow managed to drag myself to the temple today out of sheer habit.
the headache thats been worrying me for quite some time reached its peak. i started wondering why i really take all the pain to come to
temple which is almost 20 kms from my place after my tiresome work. i started thinking of all the problems in my life..
my headache,an ego-shattering discussion with a senior at work my stinking uniform (yeah.. i work in a manufacturing company,
so i have to wear a uniform though mine is a desk job) washing to be done on the next day.. my goodness!! these problems dont seem to have an end.
the list went on increasing and unable to bear its perpetuality i closed my eyes and prayed to god for an end of all these.
i wished there was some weapon, or a button which could immediately turn off all these and make life simple..

All these thoughts were interrupted by a sound, someone beating the seat before mine with a stick..
I got irritated and opened my eyes to see who it is.. the lady who just got in was blind, she was wearing black coloured glasses and was walking with help of a stick.
Following her was a whole family.. and i couldnt believe my eyes but all of them were blind. i ve never seen such family.
everyone was wearing a black specs. i started wondering if there is any blindness which is hereditary, but i couldnt go on and think abt it with my limited knowledge in diseases.
they were  around 7 or 8 of them, men and women, all of them blind.
along with them was a kid of around 6 years. but surprisingly the kid had large beautiful eyes and long eye lashes that batted everytime it saw something interesting.
they sat in seats around me, the kid and his mom before me.
The bus started and i started with my bus journey routine (read it as listening to devotional music, not very interesting?? then read it as checking out guys
and their bikes going on road.. :P by the way, its partly true, but not the guys part, the bikes one). after working in automobile company for more than 1 yr,
i can hardly see anything on road but bikes.. and their silencers (thats my area specifically..) its sad but i cant help it.
but what distracted me through out was the cheerful kid and the mother, the kid explaining all the things happening on the road to its mom.. huge building,
train on railway track, dandhia, a goddess's statue(its 9th day of navratri today) and its mom explaining everything from speed of train to durga matha's epic.

the enthusiasm that the kid showed and the energy with which its mom explained all these things amazed me..
i could imagine(i actually can't) the tiresome time in the city they would have had.. the problems they would ve faced with traffic and the rush.
all of them being blind, i really could nt think of a way they could manage.
but i didnt see a bit of that tired feeling in them. they were joking around so loudly that some ppl in the end (who understood marathi) would ve laughed.
They kept asking each other "zhopli ka??" (did you fall asleep?) and then i realized they cant even notice if the other person left.

and here i was, perfectly in health, with two eyes to see, and cribbing just for all the things in this world.
I was almost convinced my problems were nothing when compared to theirs.. and the last piece of self pity crashing with the next sight.
While i was looking through the window, i saw a bajaj employee, going somewhere on bike. ( its really easy to recognise a bajaj employee, the tee with bajaj
symbol would do it for anyone).I could recognise him as some person i ve seen in testing some time. And this person was really tired and was probably going home from office.
I started wondering if i was more tired than him. All I did was to sit before the comp and work on modelling and analysis, when this person would ve been carrying
the heavy steel parts or fitting or welding through out the day. I couldnt see in any way how i could be more exhausted than him.

and suddenly i realised this pitiable girl who was so ill and tired was just magnifying her own problems.
i really didnt know how coming back to a nice cosy room and turning on loud speaker, watching some nice movie while drinking hot tea was all that pitiable.
it was atleast extremely great when compared to my copassengers and the bajaj employee that i saw.
i almost forgot i ve to get down from the bus till the driver started shouting "akurdi!!"
it started drizzling. i was about to get down when i unintentionally gave a smile to the kid sitting before me.
i just thought about the respsonsiblity he ll have when he grows up. he has to take care an entire blind family. i was just wishing he d be strong enuf to do it.
and this kid asks me " didi chaatha ahe ka??" (didi, do u have an umbrella??) i really didnt know what to say.
i realised the kid would be kind and concerned enough to keep his family happy. or i pray so.

tomoro morning all this might not even come to my brain when i start cribbing about another infinitesimally small n silly issue.
but i just want to share this story n preserve it so that i wont forget it any time soon..
atleast it would reveal the secret of happiness when i or some one is feeling low.. its all in the way you feel.