This is a story describing a journey that lasted three and a half hours. It started at 6pm and ended at 9.30 pm; from a place called Hinjewadi and ended at a place called Nigdi, on the 21st of September 2010. I won't even attempt to write a blog that's going to take so long to read and no, I am not going to waste time getting you to guess, what was this journey all about!
It was expected to be a joyous bus ride back home after a long day in office, in anticipation of the holiday on account of Ananth Chaturdashi on the next day, but as you may have imagined by now, it turned out to be an arduous journey demanding three and a half hours of patience! Forget about the 3.5 hours, the first 2 hours of this trip were spent in the first lap; we had only managed to travel from Phase 3 to Mindtree by this time! And what was the reason? Yes, the colourful, excited crowds gathered at Hinjewadi chowk to bid farewell to 3 of their Ganesh idols that were installed 9 days ago on Ganesh Chaturthi, blissfully lost in their love for their deity and unconscious of the fact that they were crowding up at one of the major junctions at a time when so many workers were trying to get back home. Not their fault at all, they were merely celebrating their beloved Lord's immersion procession; and in an ideal world - if Ganesha had architected one for us - the traffic police should have come into play and controlled traffic at that junction and/or redirected people into routes where the procession was not headed. In fact, in a more ideal world, the government would have built an IT City with wide roads connecting the park, and not-so-narrow lanes that become bottlenecks into and out of the IT Park, on a regular basis, even on normal days, when there is no procession.
I witnessed around 10 to 12 such processions. What met the eye at each of the processions was the sight of people bursting crackers, scattering the pink and magenta coloured powder all over, dancing and cheering to deafening film music while the deity followed in a colourful chariot bedecked with orange, red and purple flowers and ornaments. Fun to watch, yes! But what also met the eye was the chaos alongside, two-wheelers and 4 wheelers all vying for space on the road, hardly any space to move, but still sneaking in, nonetheless, and adding to the noise with their loud horns! Not so much fun anymore! Wouldn't it be nicer if the dancing cheering troupes had organized themselves to allow space for vehicles to move alongside? Is this so difficult to think?
I wondered hard about the presence and absence of "common sense" and extrapolated it to the presence and absence of GOD overall. If common sense can go missing in GOD's own procession, which happens each year, year after year, and we almost have a lot of "practice" with the procession scenario, outside the bus, in other parts of the country, what was going on at being the first- time host to the CWG was no surprises!
The CWG was gaining a lot of screen space and air time, this week, and again, I wondered, as to why there is so much common sense going uncommon these days? Have we as a people become more dumb? OR Are our leaders becoming less responsible & accountable over time? When I say leaders, I mean anyone who has the authority and responsibility and accountability to take charge of a situation, see ahead of time and proactively deal with impending problems. Leaders are not people who "react", the ground staff "reacts" only in case of unforeseen situations. Leaders "proact" & are meant to spend their time "foreseeing the bigger picture". Everything cannot be an "unforeseen" situation! Isn't this something we all "KNOW" ?
Like the traffic police who always knows that the immersion processions will take place on this day and therefore could have published the modified route map to people in the IT City much before the festival! And like the leaders at the CWG, who would certainly have had the ability to foresee the mess things were getting into - they had a few years to figure this out and they had all the resources they needed to do that!
Why do we take pride in spending more time doing mindless things that bring no repute; and then "try" to fix problems only when they become bigger issues - with little time left for any mends at the last minute? We learn in school, a stitch in time saves nine, but do we really learn?
Come to think of it folks, truly, just think of anything around you for 3 and a half hours and you will uncover more and more deeper issues & problems. We as a nation need to change - for the better; and the sooner we realize; the better it will be. Not only realize, the need to act is stronger as well.
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