Yesterday we went for Goonj’s board meeting, yes “the” Goonj, “the” Anshu Gupta’s Goonj who won the Ramon Magsaysay recently. Yes am basking in reflected glory because Anshu was, is and will always be a dear friend and an inspiration. He remains the same …. Just the people outside of Goonj have suddenly noticed him a bit more :). Please continue noticing him and Goonj – what he has accomplished is no small feat. Someday he will get the Nobel prize and we will report that live.
Ok, in my excitement I got sidetracked. So, we went to Goonj which is at Sarita Vihar to attend the board meeting since am part of the board and Krishnan was a special invitee. We thought we had made enough provision for the traffic conditions by starting at 3.35 pm for a 5 pm meeting. It seems we had underestimated the traffic and the many changes to the traffic flow. We were stuck near the Okhla Industrial estate flyover in an one kilometer long jam for nearly 20 minutes and reached the venue 20 minutes late, thoroughly embarrassed.
Yes, we were upset about going late but we got to see some interesting things along the way – nearly everyone who was driving alone was on the phone :). Great, just the thing to do when you are stuck in a jam and it’s ok if you just scrape or nick someone else’s car. This is not unique to Delhi. As we are driving all over the country, we find nearly 90% drivers on the phone. So either we must scrap the rule that says you should not be on the cellphone while driving or we should implement it … The rule hangs in the air and like calls drop, it drops on one odd driver at some odd time.
For all those who call Delhi the “show off” capital and think us Delhites to be more interested in a car than a book, think again – for the first time in 18 years, we caught a book lover on the road ! A lovely young lady with a book open in front of her in one hand and she driving with that hand and the other hand – how nice. Hey, we were so shocked to see her continue reading her book and drive that we couldn’t take a picture. But I want to send my best wishes to her for her long life through this blog and also hope that she doesn’t spend any part of it behind bars for having killed someone accidentally. Oh a book lover at last !
So the next time you are stuck in a jam, please take a book along, continue driving while reading a book and anyway everyone expects to get a dent or two, and not everyone will get killed because you hit them… Some of them might just get maimed but hey they will live and accidents are part of taking the vehicle out on a busy road. Talking on the cellphone by tilting your head seems passé – the new pastime is reading and driving.
Jai ho !!