it was one of the first few weeks after i came back to bangalore after 13 years in the US. wandering through the department store, i notice the attendant shadowing me. irritated, i thought – why don’t they leave me alone?!? many other things didn’t make sense – why does the security guard keep the gate half-open? why can’t cars stay in their lanes? and so on.
the attendants in the department store come from neighboring villages. various charities go to their villages, train them on basic human interaction skills and small-time english and employ them with these stores. they are over achievers in their own right.
the security guard keeps the gate half open, and such that he can keep busy opening it for incoming cars, such that he doesn’t stray away from his post. it’s to keep him occupied at his post.
the traffic doesn’t respect the lanes. if it’s a 3-lane road, the cars go 6-wide with motorcycles thrown in. if they in fact went one-behind-the-other with perfect lane discipline, the backup would stretch so far back it would clog the city to immobility in hours – guaranteed.
and then, those annoying power cuts. they happen because this country doesn’t have energy to provide for such basic things as farming. and that, while the electricity hasn’t even reached the entire population. and we depend on monsoons for our power generation, which can’t be engineered.
litter is all over the place. simply because the garbage bins placed by municipal corp get stole right off the street. and if we see that happening in front of our eyes, we turn a blind eye.
and why do goons get elected? because you and i don’t vote. and the starving man values one square meal more than the mirage of a perfect governance.
the vehicles on the road honk a lot. it still rankles me when someone honks at me. but you know., with so many cars trying to ride in such tight patters and noise all around, honks are used in many instances as cautionary notice to folks in front. i found myself saved by those honks many times on the road. yeah yeah some of them are rude, i know.
the junk inane movies are dime-a-dozen. over-the-top acting. why? most people need very easy-to-understand narration, rather than subtlety of character development. that’s why the move Shivaji is more of a success than BLACK. it’s so much simpler to take in the narration when the villain looks mean and the hero looks handsome. the least common denominator is really low here.
may be i am growing into the mode of ‘explaining things away’. this is a nation trying very hard to shake off it’s servile past. it’s trying to figure out a way to feed a billion mouths at the mercy of monsoons. it’s trying to discover the impact of education on human well-being. learning the value of money and risk taking. being non-apologetic about loving a good bollywood flick. and.. in standing up and be counted.
or i could be accused on ‘giving up’ the wish for better things. but then, that’s the way it is. this is a world of it’s own natural laws – so suspend judgment and become one with it.
How It All Makes Sense