Traffic

Traffic was getting stuck early in the morning. An autoriksha driver had stopped in the middle of the road for some unknown reason. Behind him the white and blue BMTC city bus driver was trying to squeeze in through some imaginary space between the auto and the median but realized the futility and started honking. All this was at a T junction was not helping the matters. The Toyota quails call-center cab driver who wanted to turn right on to main road from the cross road had to stop. With him the traffic in other direction too came to a standstill. And in between all this there were motorbikes trying to squeeze through. Together they had made up a huge zigzag pile of vehicles on the road. Vehicles of all sizes, from Bikes to Buses were stopped at various angles forming unimaginable patterns. Bangalore was having its usual traffic snarls on an unusually warm Monday morning.

He was out of his house early in the morning. His wife had got his clean, crisp starched white dress ready. He had to drop his grand daughter at nearby primary school. The little flower school was at walkable distance. He did not have to worry about traffic today. But the traffic block was making him uneasy, he shouted out to the auto driver to move to the side. The auto driver gave him an indifferent look but still moved on. This irreverence from common auto drivers was new to him. The lack of prompt reaction from the driver irritated him. With a brief instruction not to move, he left his grand daughter on the footpath and moved in to stop the traffic coming into the main road from the cross road. Slowly the traffic on the main road started moving. He could see his grand daughter worried look, urging grandfather to move on. After all it was no more his duty. The change from the traffic cops white shirt to a retired man’s white shirt was too big. Even well anticipated and planned change is a change after all. The first day of his retired life after a long stint as a traffic cop was feeling stranger than he had expected.

With in a few minutes the traffic flow was back to normal. He felt a sense of satisfaction. With an inconspicuous smile on his face he continued his walk to the school with the kid in tow. As he passed by the nearby local fast food center he saw the duty traffic cop having Rava dosa and tea. It was the traffic cop's daily quota of free breakfast turning a blind eye on parking violations by hotels patrons.