WHEN PEDESTRIANS BECOME KINGS

                                                                       

WHEN PEDESTRIANS BECOME KINGS

                    I happened to read a news item, recently , that the pedestrian would be  king of roads in Cochin with the roads getting a facelift .That put me to think. Among the road users, the pedestrians are supposed to be at the lowest rung vis-à-vis size, importance ,value etc. The Container carriers, trucks, tanker lorries, buses  ,cars ,three wheelers and the two wheelers precede them in rank and grade, based not only on their size and power but their  methods of using the roads !

 The Container carriers  cannot  boast of high speed  and may be because of this their involvement in accidents are lesser. The other trucks ,  have their might  and  are cause of accidents not only because of high speed but  their reckless driving without ever dimming the Head lights   and the careless parking at night. The drivers are often drunk and  the tiresome drive coupled with odd hours of sleep also are the causes of accidents. The buses are of course the  killers in haste, mostly in cities. They have scant regard for human lives and  race through the roads like its nobody’s business. The cars (and what a variety we have now, from the tiny  Nano to the Merc and limousines !) of course  speed on our roads  and the danger they pose is mostly inversely proportionate to the age of the drivers. The younger  they are,  the riskier to everyone around. The three wheelers   called Autorikshaws, which meander through the crowds and the narrowest spaces, are seen mostly in towns and cities and  once the front wheel goes through , the drivers are confident that the rear two will follow suit whatever be the impediments on the sides in the guise of pedestrians or other vehicles !! The two wheelers are a category of their own. How they squeeze through traffic, between buses and cars, between vehicles and the pavement, sometimes over the pavement is a wonder to watch. Their balancing tricks could defeat the display of circus artists on a unicylce. They rarely  do hit others, mostly get hit and hurt  themselves. And finally the last  in the grade…..Ah! Our most honoured pedestrians  !   And I am not talking  about the pedestrians you find on the highways or  mofussil   roads ;I mean the pedestrians in the cities, especially a city like  Cochin where  they are now going to be kings !!  They are a class apart . They are already kings .They can walk all over the roads with the mobile phone stuck to their  ears, even if it was perilous ,without fear of being fined by any cop. They can  ignore the traffic lights   and walk over and make their way through the streaming  traffic ignoring  the risk it poses for  themselves and  the motor  vehicles, whose drivers can only honk on helplessly or curse under their breath. The traffic police of course would look the other way.. They can stop or slow down    speeding vehicles on the busy roads at their convenience, by a gesture  of the hand , to cross over  at any place of their choice. They can stand and gossip with their friends at any parking space , ignoring the honk of the vehicles which  come to park .The driver has to come out and literally plead with them to allow the vehicle to be parked. A pedestrian would have been hit by a vehicle because of his own negligence and the whole crowd around  would be witness to  this, but the attack of the mob would be on the driver of the vehicle which hit him, whatever be fact, for after all the PEDESTRIAN IS KING !The truth is, that at least in Cochin, the pedestrian is not so much  stressed as is made out to be .It is the mostly  the car drivers who bear the brunt of the indiscipline of  most pedestrians ! So now ,may be the poor-rich car owners/drivers  can become Kings, with the implementation of the Pedestrian Master plan ! 

REMINISCENCES OF FAMILY HOLIDAYS...

                                                                            

 REMINISCENCES   OF  FAMILY HOLIDAYS

                                Recently I read an article  on how holidays  are now being planned by families,  to meet their extended family members  and grandparents. I was surprised to read that the get-togethers  are being arranged at a holiday resort or other place of tourists interest, sometimes   even abroad, depending  on the  financial background    of the families planning their holidays. Arrangements are planned for the grandparents   also   to reach  the  destination. That is how the bonding is made among   the   children …the maternal or paternal side cousins. Of course the  article was about the families in the upper classes .But then, after reading it , I felt that it will not be too far in the future when the idea of  this kind of holidays for  meeting  grandparents, cousins ,aunts and uncles  will soon percolate to the middle class of our society .  Already holidays abroad , rather than a trip home,  has  now  become the in thing among  the middle class , what with the plethora of holiday packages being promoted by the travel agents  and banks offering  Holiday loans !

                A time is soon coming when the home of the grandparents   will cease to be the meeting point of the second and third generation. Forget about the   grandchildren  ,  even the sons and daughters are finding it boring to go and spend a few days with their parents  living in villages or small towns. Thinking on this   brought back memories  of  my own childhood , decades back when we children really looked forward to the annual visit to our grandparents who were settled in a small town , almost a village in Kerala miles away from where we were living. In fact ,  in those days just  before summer holidays the main discussion  among all the children in the classrooms used to be centered around trips to  “native” place!  

                             I still   remember  how our grandparents would be waiting  at  the gate  for us ,when we arrived to spend the holidays with them. For them it was a change in their humdrum life ,to have young lives around them ,albeit for a few weeks. For us it was the excitement of  running around the  house and the vast compound full of  trees- palms, jackfruit, mangoes, guavas ,custard apples etc. Normally holidays were planned in such a way that all the grandchildren would  to be  there together at least for a few days. Those  were  the days of   merriment ,carefree  and joyful ,away from the hustle and bustle of the city  we lived in. More than anything it was the pampering of our grandmother that we enjoyed the most. Our   parents' lost their    control on us     the moment we were    taken under the wings of our grandmother. We grandchildren were princes and princesses when we were with our grandmother. We used to enjoy listening to the stories of our wonderful grandmother who was   an  extrovert  ,fun  loving ,  so full of love and affection There was never  any generation gap between her and us- the grandchildren! Grandfather on the other hand was an introvert and a  strict  disciplinarian  ,  but would not dare risk raising his voice  against all the pampering we children got  from our grandmother. ! Our grandmother would regale us with stories of her childhood and younger days, of how she was a teenaged bride who never saw school beyond the fourth standard  when she got married to our grandfather who was a doctor attached to the Burma Medical services in Rangoon, of their journeys aboard ships and  of their return to India after the World War and so on. It was a hilarious story of how   he first “refined “ her  and how she finally “tamed” him ! Listening to all the old tales   was our pastime in the evenings as in those days there was no television or computers  to distract us.  And our grandmother  in turn was always keen on hearing  about our life in Northern India. 

                We cousins also used to share with each other, our experiences and lifestyles in the far off   cities we were living in. We used to organize skits to entertain our   grandparents/uncles and aunts. The   bonding those days were  through  such  living together ,sharing and caring   for a few days . It was miles away from the joint family system which had its own minus points and which was   anyway  getting  obsolete, by then .

                 And now we hear of holidays away from   home , in  hotels and resorts. It   certainly will not be the same as a homecoming to grandparents’   place. I wonder what the present and future generations who are organizing holidays   away from their parental homes   would  have,  as memories, and what the level of bonding would be with  the extended family members. Of course with the fast pace of today’s living and changing lifestyles ,I suppose such  holiday- get-togethers in strange places are still better than reaching a stage ,when dates would be specified for remembering grandparents, uncles ,aunts and cousins like they do on  Mother’s Day, Father’s day etc  .I feel that    the day is not far away when  with the shrinking sizes of families , and loosening of family bonds ,  enjoying holidays  in the company of only friends  would be the preferred option !

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CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

                                                                          

 CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

                    ( This I had written and recorded in December 2012 ..)

     The brutal gang rape of the young girl in the moving bus  in Delhi appears to have really stirred the conscience of the people of India and our youth in particular, witnessing the protest  that has been staged in the capital of India and other places. The  demand    is  mostly for awarding capital punishment to the rapists. The Visual and other media  have aired the views of the VIPs  on this matter, which made me think why not I take a survey  on this among the  Aam Admi in my circle of friends and acquaintances, which of course is limited  to very narrow circle ,me  being a commoner  and an asocial person !

      I started with a septuagenarian aunt of mine who is quite  vociferous on such matters. Why any doubt ,was her reaction .It has to be Capital punishment  and nothing else and that too very soon before the society  forgets  the issue as public memory is short !

 I  found my  forty plus neighbour glued to the Television watching the  live telecasts of the protests. On my asking her views on the matter  , this was her reaction.” You know I have  two sons and have always missed not having a daughter. Today,  after this incident I console myself that at least I would not have to face such a situation in my life. It has also made me more conscious of  inculcating respect  for women in my two sons so that they do not grow up into such brutes. If I were a law maker I would have got the  brute rapists stoned to death in public.”  Her husband , a Doctor, reacted in a different way. He wanted that criminals castrated  and suggested that the Government should  amend the laws to make chemical castration  the only  punishment for brutal rape.

The next  persons I posed the question to , was  a group of young boys and  girls who were also watching the protests on the Television. Their reactions was  almost violent. One of them said that he feels ashamed to have been born a male  in this country which  gives scant respect to women and mind you , he was an only  child of his parents. The girls were  unanimous in their  opinion that the men who committed the horrendous crime should be paraded naked in public and should be hanged thereafter. All of them united  in their  opinion  that imprisonment for life cannot be a deterrent and the men would come back to society  with  all their suppressed sexual frustration and commit worse crimes with a vengeance.

Finally  when I came home  I saw my mother, an octogenarian , seated before the Television  keenly watching the live telecast of the protest in Delhi , foregoing her afternoon nap which is a must in her daily routine. The moment I entered the house she   pointed to the screen and exclaimed “ look at this ! What is happening in our country and to our men ? How can they do such things? Don’t they have mothers and sisters? This is too much .I wish I had the power to  punish them. I would get  their genitals sliced and  chilly powder  sprinkled  by the very girl who was their victim .”  That was the  end of my “survey” as I already got the  feel of the seething anger  among the  people of all age group .One  thing  everybody seemed to be united upon was, that the punishment should be  fast  so that it would have its impact on such  other mentally sick men. Is our Government listening ?