Calcutta (Kolkata after the name change, I still love the old name) is one city which is infamous for probably the most chaotic traffic system. The only city where the traffic police would change the signals manually after commuters prompt them by honking incessantly. Park Circus (a se7en point crossing) is still manually managed by around ten – fifteen odd traffic policemen. Any new visitor would be in awe seeing the seamless co-ordination among them as thousands of vehicle criss cross probably the busiest crossing in the city. It’s not that this city does not know commuting without honking or that they do not have any civic sense, if you may call it that. Keep aside the fact that even the best of cars in this city carry at least one small dent some where reminding you of the chaos it went through.
That moment when no one honked took me by surprise, made me get off my bike to investigate whats up with this city. There I notice a car driver stop his car right in the middle of the road. The traffic started piling up. But, no one honked. This gentleman got down to help an old man cross the busy crossing. It seems the old chap had been standing there for quite sometime. Everyone, including the unruly bus drivers waited, waited for the driver to help the old man.
So, people who call this city chaotic and a mess, let me point out, this is just one of those instances which might make you swallow the word you just blurted out. For once just ignore the negatives and look out for the lesser joys of life. I guess it was a matter of realizing that among all these commuters crossing that day, this one man decided to take a stand to help this old chap. All others acknowledged the fact and No One Honked!!!
a recent online privacy mis-adventure for a friend ended up with him calling me to help him login into his Facebook profile. somehow he had managed to lock himself out of his own profile and he was unable to bypass the password reset settings. this prompted me to think how much is too much? on one end we have activists crying for breach of privacy by Facebook, then we have mortals crying foul when they are locked out from their profiles due to the security features of Facebook. what we don’t realise is that it all boils down to a choice. even Facebook has given you a choice, on the level of security you want or rather may need. “Choice is an illusion, created between those with power, and those without.” as said by Merovingian in Matrix. are we choosing the levels of security or are we made to choose them? the effort we had to put in to restore my friend’s account impressed me of the security a Facebook account provided but the same was cheesed off by my friend as it was as good as getting locked out of his own house without the keys.
looking at the recent cases of people complaining regarding their FB profiles getting impersonated or being hacked, i guess its good to have this kind of security, at the cost of your being patient, i don’t think they are asking a lot from us.
a man whose desire for bikes & love for tech n music is dwarfed only by his passion for the moon!!! this was one of the best ways you could describe him. a perfect lunatic who was in love with the moon. as a kid he used to gaze at the white, through the window grills, wondering if he could become a spaceman and fly to the moon. he used to hum to the tunes of ‘to the moon and back’ by savage garden. used to go on moonlit treks all over dalma and the western ghats, thinking he could be closer, may be get a better view. thoughts even wandered to the moon being made of cheese, wonder now where that thought came from. he was in short smitten by the moon, fell in love with the sky, the rocks and starts alike. no matter what, the moon was always the queen of the dark bottomless sky. most of all he opened himself wide to the glory of the night. moonified could be a term used when he being so obsessed called one of his own the moon. so much so that everyone he knew can claim that they saw moon walking the earth. the high tides rushing straight to the head causing blackouts. 124 weeks of perfect harmony ends in shock, the aftershock of which is still in form of ripples. the sky went black, he craving for the white every 20seven days. a few letters, few melodies, mark the day. then comes the total eclipse of the heart, only in this case, the heart doesn’t see the light of day. around him are a million stars, all vowing to make him shine, all get together in a bundle to turn him all sunshiney again.
LEAVE THE ROAD 