Due to one’s obstinate interest in gleaning what little knowledge the humble mind might soak in while trying to tackle the motley abject objects often encountered in daily life, those with the ‘knowledge of the streets’ continue to present bits and pieces of brief but thought-provoking instances.
Once, recently while riding home on the motorcycle from work about midnight, I chanced to encounter an odd shape writhing, rotating and tumbling just beside the entrance to an inclined RCC route connecting the Defence Colony to the ‘rural’ suburbs one lives in. Noticing an old wire-break cycle being used by the shifting shape of the man attempting to use it for support to get up on his legs in vain, any minuscule scope for encountering some paranormal like mysterious experience evaporated as I put my own mobike on stand to help the man get up. Immediately, one realised that the middle-aged man evidently from the poorer segment of the working class had drunk more alcohol than his system could make sense of or handle. Not being in the mood to let the drunk be in a precarious situation that had the potential to cause a range of mishaps including other drunks returning home on two-wheelers colliding with the blotto cyclist with serious or even fatal consequences, I muttered a curse asking the fellow why he had drunk beyond his capacity while trying to help him get up on his own feet. Just as earlier imagined, two other drunks returning home on a motorbike entering the same inclined path, noticed me and my parked motorcycle, shooed away their incapacitated fellow lover of booze and laughed out a “thanks” to me before zooming away. By this time, the blotto cyclist had managed to gain a wobbling stand for more minutes than he could manage some moments ago. And, in reply to my once again chiding him for getting so drunk he actually muttered a sincere sounding “sorry” as I pointed his bicycle towards the direction he wanted to walk towards using the cycle as a wobbling but more stable support. And before parting, he also managed to blurt out a phonetically clear “thank you” twice. leaving the sad bit related with alcoholism apart for a bit, I observed that this apparently labour-class fellow who was really very drunk, still had the manners to apologise and thank a person who came to his aid for whatever reason. This drunk cyclist actually displayed the civic mannerisms that one would expect from ‘educated and well off’ vehicle users who are generally busy talking on the mobile phone while driving, abusing fellow road users and making tantrums or displays of ego and ‘rage’ at the slightest bit of “provocation” presented either by another road user or by the uniformed man or woman handling the deadly and highly irritating job of managing traffic in urban Dehradun. Similar instances of common sense by common people being brushed aside by the ‘educated’, like the guards in various private banks/office buildings frustrated telling vehicle owners to park properly only to be ignored or looked down upon, the traffic police men and women who try their bit to do their job managing a melee of vehicle owners mostly exhibiting ignorance, arrogance, plain ill-manners and varied stages of inebriation caused by alcohol or that ‘sense of power’ are now common sights in Doon city. It was last night when for a moment I once again wasted a few moments wondering why the authorities and people of Dehradun cannot simply regulate vehicular traffic even as per the basic rules to the benefit of all, that I was reminded of the blaring reality of the level of civic sense and respect for the law being encouraged by society when well pastmidnight, a very besura singer with a microphone and instrumental troupe tried to drown with his rendition, the pain-causing noise with obscene words that was emanating from another programme-- probably what is referred to as a marriage party-- which should have stopped generating loud noise at10 PM as per the law. And the best part is, that bulk of the environmental, cultural and administrative contamination booming in Doon and elsewhere in the state is a result of doing exactly the opposite of what would have been had we been rooted to and observing the positive aspects of the native culture of Uttarakhand which is not just being sidelined but appears to be in the process of distortion or ‘replacement’ by pop culture for commercial purposes covered by a veneer of ‘development’. The worst part is that this seems to be just the beginning.