Monday, October 5, 2015

Ponderings On the Road - Act 1

I was going to office in the morning hours and the Traffic signal became Red, albeit slowly, as always it does whenever it spots me from a distance. Mind you, it does takes its own sweet time to change the colors (Green--> Yellow--> Red) and it all depends on the speed level of my bike. All vehicles stopped at this moment along with their drivers. People start looking around - Cars, Trees, Pollution, Beautiful Face (if any), and when nothing of interest could catch their mind, they start looking themselves in mirror and lastly their own vehicle.

In front of me, an auto rickshaw and a bike were standing side by side. The biker must be having a heavy work schedule, else he would not have pounced on taking a pen and paper out of his pocket, to scribble something. And then, the pen fell to the ground. The biker tried to bend down but could not reach the level of the pen. The auto driver, with a whisker, gets out of his auto, takes the pen and hand it over to the guy. They exchanged a friendly smile and then the signal became green. Vehicles started moving forward and then both the vehicles went in their own directions.

Nothing unusual about it, right. A person handing over a pen to the other when it falls down. Even I think the same. What really made me ponder here was the split second taken by the auto driver to react for the need. It seemed and looked so obvious for him to do what he has to do. If you ask me, it was like getting up in the morning and with our eyes still closed, going to the bathroom. No part of brain is utilized for this requirement.

We all find ourselves in so many such situations but how many of us think clearly and does the best thing we can, at that moment of time. Does it make any difference. Not sure, it sure would make us feel good.