Bread, Butter and JAM!!!

Has it ever happened to you that suddenly you wonder if things are really what they seem. Does it feel like sometimes the entire world is looking at conning you into someplace you dont want to go? Do u wonder why things happen? Does it make you stop and think. Does it make you contemplate? Does it make you Laugh at the state the world is in?

Has it ever happened to you that, you wonder why certain things will never change, and certain things change all the time??

The most hilarious and paradoxical event happened to me on friday.
I was in a Traffic Jam!

Now ladies and gentlemen, this is no ordinary traffic jam. This is a traffic Jam, that teaches one that what in reality is, is actually not. Kinda Freudian, but different. This is a traffic jam that makes one wonder what the truth actually is!!

You will all agree that the modern phenomenon known as the "Traffic Jam" is definetely one of the biggest avenues for wastage of of human talent, skill, time, energy, and patience, not to mention the copious amounts of petroleum gasoline, motor oil, steering fluid, transmission fluid, brake fluid, etc.

It takes a lot to endure such scourge. Its a demanding job. Being part of a Traffic Jam! Demanding from the driver and especially demanding from the poor Vehicle.

The jam happened on the ever famous (not) Hosur Road! YUp. This jam was the Mother of all jams. I had finished an event in electronic city for Satyam and was headed back home (Frazer town) . The happiness of having a seemingly well-done Hosur Road was pretty short-lived. The magic of the 6 lane super highway between Bangalore and Hosur blended into nothingness. As I entered hosur road my not so sharp ears already started picking up loud honking and people shouting. I could see kilometers and kilometers of trucks and cars lined up, on their way back to bangalore. And I thought to myself.. Ah! there goes half an hour in a traffic jam. (usual bangalore standards).

Ive heard of nightmarish stories and exasperating tales of being stuck in traffic Jams on Hosur Road. I was thanking my stars and the good GOD above for not letting me be a "software engineer".

Anyways. I ventured boldly into where my car and me had never gone before. And guess what. I was stuck in this jam from 11.10 to 1.50. That is be the LONGest traffic JAM I've ever been in. I agree by standards of people who travel everday to electronic city this must have been a miniscule jam.

But here is what took cake, and made me think about the pride of Bangalore , the 6 lane superhighway. The jam happened 11.10pm to 1.50 am .

Yup. Feel Flummoxed. A traffic Jam in the dead of the night! With the stars above my head. I was stuck in a TRaffic Jam in the middle of the night! How unbelievable is that. The irony eh?

There were trucks and goods vehicles everywhere. Swarming all around like bees from an attacked beehive. Chaos and disorderliness prevailed. You couldn't also miss out on the many humps on the road that only helped in the most bizarre of traffic jams. Not to forget the reckless driving of those blessed truck drivers who think they are the kings at this time of the night. The innumerable unruly city riders and drivers. One carries on with raving and ranting, fretting and fuming, grimacing and grouching, whining and wailing, cribbing and complaning, but then, who's listening to you?? The irony eh?

And in between that the karnataka government is creating the 9 km flyover along Hosur Road leading to Electronic city. To begin in April 2005, this will take 30 months for completion. The 6 lane Super highway causes a jam in the middle of the night, wonder what Expressway is gonna do? The estimated cost of construction of the 9-km elevated super highway is Rs. 450 crores.

Wonder if Chaotic truck guys know that!!!! The irony eh?

I feel I am lucky to only have to travel Hosur road once in a while. I know my friends who work in Electronic City and they spend most of their day on this road. Also bangalore is also the only place you can ever see a traffic police constable controlling the traffic on a flyover bridge, or at a construction site. And expecting a traffic cop in the middle of the night is like expecting the impossible.

Thankfully I had my Caselogic to keep me company for the entire duration. I did manage to catch some sleep too. Only to be woken up by the rude honks from the truckers and tempo guys behind me. In retrospection I probably would have got home faster If I walked home.

Hosur road really set me thinking about where the our city and the civilised world in general is going to. All this infrastructure, civilisation, superhighways, expressways, and Im still stuck in a traffic jam at 1pm in the night!!!!!

Life is after all a bittersweet symphony isnt it?

Bangalore - Garden city? Pcity? City with beautiful women? IT City?? Naaaah!!!
Bangalore is defenitely the Traffic Jam capital of India.