This is a typical scene we get to see in our country... traffic, crowd and roadside fights. Whose mistake? No one knows; yet everyone will have their opinion. Mostly the decision of who is right and who must be wrong is decided even before a fair enquiry is made. The bigger the vehicle, the more probability of him/her driving it to be assumed, accused and condemned for making the mistake no matter how innocent s/he might be. Smaller vehicles are usually the victims to the onlookers eyes; one of the several benefits in driving one. This is one such situation I got a chance to click in Bangalore when a heated argument was going on.
Busy onlookers watching with an uninteresting interest emerging suddenly out of nowhere to play the role of concerned audience is something offered within seconds of any incident happening. No matter whose fight it is, there are always these kinds that gathers around like scavenging crows to pass their opinions at the drop of a hat. These are people who have seen more than they would have, heard more than they could have and talk more than they should have. They know everything! The lines they drop in may not be true at all yet as many other things said by strangers are presumed, this is yet another assumption made for roadside panchayats to render judgement at the earliest. Life moves on before the next traffic jam thus...
2 comments:
VST, I have watched this roadside fights, arguments since my childhood and specially in Kolkata the fights are often dramatic. And I have thought about it--why do they do that?
I think these fights are an outlet for people to express themselves, to feel themselves--as alive, as intelligent folks with own voice, as folks who respond to react--in a society that has crushed their democratic voice, where the trauma called living has erased ability to react and respond to the manifold injustices that happen both publicly and privately. In that world, the relatively minor traffic accident is a safe way to vent pent-up frustrations and desires. At least this is how I have analyzed it....
@Bhavana: Place, person/people and situation often play a vital role in pushing us overboard and in unchaining an 'often kept in chains' side of us. Like pressure cookers, we are all steaming... some just lose their pressure valve and burst. Rather than respond, at times a few react and hence the traffic jams.
Post a Comment