Horn ok please...!!

Kasturi's thoughts while coming back home from office - "I hope i haven't made a mistake in the estimate i sent...what was the amount..?... jute bag laden, oily hair tied..the bharatiya naari launches herself into the street...without looking to her right or left. She is the queen...we, the idiots better make way for her, she is taking vegetables to feed her family. UHHHHHH #^&(*%^$^#^%(*&(*....irritating women..!! Have you seen these women, hurtling their kids by their hands..pulling the arm apart while shaking them in rage for not staying close enough or running through busy crowded streets? These women themselves need a crash course that reads "crossing the road - do's and don'ts"

The traffic in Mumbai is pretty organized you know...compared to other cities....not that I've been to too many, but so i hear.! People here are disciplined, except the fact that they are a 100 meters ahead and right in the middle of the road, ready to pounce even before the signal light turns green. We are a pretty well behaved cohort. Lanes are marked. Most...Most roads have a divider that makes driving and focusing so much easier...well...you can let your thoughts run wherever they want to..almost. The inside lanes are the problem areas. There are no dividers. Vegetable vendors and cobblers and fruit wallas are sitting on either side of the road. Unthinking, unlooking(i know there is no such word), self involved people shuttle through these streets..rather narrow lanes, with such confidence and spontaniety...its amazing. You cannot think of driving through mumbai without hurtling abuses...!! A huge tanker will find its way somehow through these kutti kutti roads and the butt of an autorickshaw..struggling to poke its nose into the next lane to take a U-turn will cause a traffic jam. One lane is not moving because the rickshaw is stuck in the middle..like a croocked arm..neither in this lane or that. The tanker guy honks incessantly...and so are a hundred others. The bikers are nudging and manuvering their vehicals from the side stree..almost crushing the vendors. Pedistrians continue to ignore this whole mess as if saying "Its none of my business" and go on with life completely unaware of blaring horns, the yelling people and stalling any attempt of the traffic to move ahead..!!

When you finally do manage to get out of this chaos....it feels like.....finally being able to rip apart the extremely tight shirt you were wearing. As you take it off, you feel the breath coming back to you..you let out a sigh aaaaahhhhhh....FINALLY...!