Since my city is the third class city of the third world country we should not expect anything from the drivers on her roads. But before we move on let me clear this here and now that in my understanding there is no second class or first class city in this third class country. By this assumption I mean to tell you that do not take my city and its rules and regulations as any exception to the rule or anything extraordinary.
Anyhoo! There are no qualified drivers on the roads. The cars, bicycles, donkey carts, buses, wagons, motorcycles, few horse carts and many more donkey carts are moving at their own designated pace in the meshwork of ways that we like to call roads. There is smog, all around, and public transport is adding to it 24/7.
There is no sense of traffic rules. You can turn right, you can turn left, you can even take a U turn without any prior warning or sign on the main road, at the behest of your dear heart. It is like driving in the wheel of death. It seems it is not the hands of the motorists that are steering the vehicles but the other way round.
There used to be a single traffic signal, on a single crossing in the city, but that has long become part of the list of historical sites in the world. Some greedy thief found that out and thus stole the monument.
The traffic police are non existent. Those that are can be found resting their lives away on a chair by the road side under the shade far removed from the happenings of this material world. It seems that they have realized that the true way to salvation is through meditation, in the shade, and not the work they are paid for. Others who are not yet there, are busy shifting money from the pockets of the motorists and public transporters in broad daylight. They firmly believe that money should remain in circulation. Money has by some miracle zapped the ventromedial nuclei of such policemen and thus their bellies are growing ventromedially.
The roads are all a mix of brake and go kind. You brake and let go a little then brake again since there are no more than 1 meter long patches of smooth roads here in Jhang. Some roads were too dry so WASA thought of a brilliant plan. It blocked its sewerage so that it can flow out and settle the dust that was gathering around.
Just today while I was driving someone to the bus station on the other corner of the city I saw a brilliant display of driving right in front of me. There was this fully loaded wagon in front of me crossing the railway line when the driver saw an approaching wagon which was also fully loaded and applied brake smack in the center of the railway crossing. The driver of the approaching wagon did the same and out came two hands from the windows and a hearty handshake took place. Just the kind our ranger officer have with the border security force at the Indian border these days. The two old chums started chatting. Inquiring, most probably, about each others' extended families. While a long line built up on both side of the road behind their wagons. After sometime when they had nothing left to talk about they started their vehicles and moved, completely above all the agony they had caused to the traffic. Rightly so since this was their birth right. I being of the other mind didn't like this. So decided to get even with the driver in front of me. All I had to do was over take his vehicle in the blinding traffic and then force him off the road and to stop. Doing this satisfied my anger and I moved on. The traffic resumed. I had become one of them.
Anyhoo! There are no qualified drivers on the roads. The cars, bicycles, donkey carts, buses, wagons, motorcycles, few horse carts and many more donkey carts are moving at their own designated pace in the meshwork of ways that we like to call roads. There is smog, all around, and public transport is adding to it 24/7.
There is no sense of traffic rules. You can turn right, you can turn left, you can even take a U turn without any prior warning or sign on the main road, at the behest of your dear heart. It is like driving in the wheel of death. It seems it is not the hands of the motorists that are steering the vehicles but the other way round.
There used to be a single traffic signal, on a single crossing in the city, but that has long become part of the list of historical sites in the world. Some greedy thief found that out and thus stole the monument.
The traffic police are non existent. Those that are can be found resting their lives away on a chair by the road side under the shade far removed from the happenings of this material world. It seems that they have realized that the true way to salvation is through meditation, in the shade, and not the work they are paid for. Others who are not yet there, are busy shifting money from the pockets of the motorists and public transporters in broad daylight. They firmly believe that money should remain in circulation. Money has by some miracle zapped the ventromedial nuclei of such policemen and thus their bellies are growing ventromedially.
The roads are all a mix of brake and go kind. You brake and let go a little then brake again since there are no more than 1 meter long patches of smooth roads here in Jhang. Some roads were too dry so WASA thought of a brilliant plan. It blocked its sewerage so that it can flow out and settle the dust that was gathering around.
Just today while I was driving someone to the bus station on the other corner of the city I saw a brilliant display of driving right in front of me. There was this fully loaded wagon in front of me crossing the railway line when the driver saw an approaching wagon which was also fully loaded and applied brake smack in the center of the railway crossing. The driver of the approaching wagon did the same and out came two hands from the windows and a hearty handshake took place. Just the kind our ranger officer have with the border security force at the Indian border these days. The two old chums started chatting. Inquiring, most probably, about each others' extended families. While a long line built up on both side of the road behind their wagons. After sometime when they had nothing left to talk about they started their vehicles and moved, completely above all the agony they had caused to the traffic. Rightly so since this was their birth right. I being of the other mind didn't like this. So decided to get even with the driver in front of me. All I had to do was over take his vehicle in the blinding traffic and then force him off the road and to stop. Doing this satisfied my anger and I moved on. The traffic resumed. I had become one of them.
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