Vighnakarta?
Mumbai traffic jams have their own character. True to how the city lives, traffic jams also tend to be chaotic, unruly and yet everybody finally seems to find their way. This is especially true at junctions or nakas as they call it here when signals are on blink and the traffic cop is catching forty winks or is in his cabin with drinks!
The sequence of events, or rather the randomness of events in such a scenario is worth a chronicle. There is always a main road, as they call it, highway n short and then there are a lot of arteries. Singals being on blink mean that everybody has a right of way, yet nobody has supreme rights at any point in time. This is precisely what happens too. The extra aggressive BEST driver is the first to butt in, and then in the suburbs there are the ricks that seem to be able to mould themselves into any shape and ensconce themselves into the tiniest of corners. So there would a couple of BEST buses, a score of rickshaws, all facing directions away from where they’re intended. In between you’ll have cyclists, mongrels, pedestrians and hawkers pushing their carts.
If you thought this was bad, how bout throwing in a ten tonne mammoth in between. This is what happened this morning.
An elephant decided that its had enough of walking by the side of the road and following the mahout’s instructions. For the uninitiated, its not highly uncommon to find elephants on Mumbai streets, in the suburbs, that is. These are usually brought in during festivals such as Ganesh Pooja for purely pecuniary reasons of the mahout. So our tusker friend walked right into a busy traffic junction where as luck would have it the signal was already on blink. Hell broke loose is an understatement with the somnolent traffic cop getting onto his wireless phone and summoning ‘superior’ help. In two minutes time, you had an inebriated cop, a desperate mahout and a host of amused passersby. A BEST driver tried circumventing the mammoth only to find himself right in the way of another kin of his who was trying to do the same. So now the bulk of the jam was due to the threesome, the two BEST buses and a happily placed elephant. Meanwhile the crowd around the junction got interested in the fact that this was divine presence. Sighting an elephant during Ganpati fest times is a fantastic omen. One Mr Kulkarni, that was his name I presume spotted a banana vendor and quickly bought some and made his maiden offering to the tusker, via the mahout of course. Soon excited school kids, devout Hindus, animal lovers and people of all shapes and sizes were queuing up wanting to give the tusker their humble offerings. The cops arrived blaring sirens and looking all set to arrest a guy or two. But there was no way that they could hurt what had fast turned into ‘religious sentiments’ by now. The mahout was ‘requested’ to lead the beast to one side of the road. The line of devotees followed suit. As traffic cleared out, his Holiness waited patiently by the side and accepted all that came his way. Ganpati Bappa Morya!
The sequence of events, or rather the randomness of events in such a scenario is worth a chronicle. There is always a main road, as they call it, highway n short and then there are a lot of arteries. Singals being on blink mean that everybody has a right of way, yet nobody has supreme rights at any point in time. This is precisely what happens too. The extra aggressive BEST driver is the first to butt in, and then in the suburbs there are the ricks that seem to be able to mould themselves into any shape and ensconce themselves into the tiniest of corners. So there would a couple of BEST buses, a score of rickshaws, all facing directions away from where they’re intended. In between you’ll have cyclists, mongrels, pedestrians and hawkers pushing their carts.
If you thought this was bad, how bout throwing in a ten tonne mammoth in between. This is what happened this morning.
An elephant decided that its had enough of walking by the side of the road and following the mahout’s instructions. For the uninitiated, its not highly uncommon to find elephants on Mumbai streets, in the suburbs, that is. These are usually brought in during festivals such as Ganesh Pooja for purely pecuniary reasons of the mahout. So our tusker friend walked right into a busy traffic junction where as luck would have it the signal was already on blink. Hell broke loose is an understatement with the somnolent traffic cop getting onto his wireless phone and summoning ‘superior’ help. In two minutes time, you had an inebriated cop, a desperate mahout and a host of amused passersby. A BEST driver tried circumventing the mammoth only to find himself right in the way of another kin of his who was trying to do the same. So now the bulk of the jam was due to the threesome, the two BEST buses and a happily placed elephant. Meanwhile the crowd around the junction got interested in the fact that this was divine presence. Sighting an elephant during Ganpati fest times is a fantastic omen. One Mr Kulkarni, that was his name I presume spotted a banana vendor and quickly bought some and made his maiden offering to the tusker, via the mahout of course. Soon excited school kids, devout Hindus, animal lovers and people of all shapes and sizes were queuing up wanting to give the tusker their humble offerings. The cops arrived blaring sirens and looking all set to arrest a guy or two. But there was no way that they could hurt what had fast turned into ‘religious sentiments’ by now. The mahout was ‘requested’ to lead the beast to one side of the road. The line of devotees followed suit. As traffic cleared out, his Holiness waited patiently by the side and accepted all that came his way. Ganpati Bappa Morya!
Comments