1. A spate of traffic snarls.
It looked so conspiratorial. We're driving down to Kovalam to attend a wedding in the family. Enroute, there were traffic snarls galore delaying us, for long hours, at various places. Enquiries elicited the weak alibi that most of the malayalees were out on the roads, doing their onam shopping, in the towns through which the wretched highway passes. Why I said that the reason meted out as the cause, did not hold water was that the policemen, on duty at crucial points, seemed to give priority to crossing traffic - sparse in comparison - than to the arterial one! The result was that there were serpentine queues of vehicles on the north-south axis which took an inordinately long time to clear!
Traffic snarls bring out the beasts in people behind the wheels. Listing out a couple:-
(a) Continuous use of the horn that gets to be irritable and grates on one's nerves. The sounds made by
certain contraptions can really jolt anyone. Wonder whether the law permits these ones?
(b) One's nicely aligned to the vehicles, before and after, while waiting for the impasse to pass when guys
overtake trying to squeeze into a slot ahead, raising doubts as to whether one had been foolish to be
law abiding in being in the queue!
I wasn't quite happy to be in that situation but had to grin and bear it, all the same.
2. The bride's faux pas.
Lekha's nephew, Avinash was getting married to Vinitha. As all nair weddings go, this too, had its fair share of gaffes and faux pas. To list just one, when the bride's father handed over the garland to her for adorning the groom she almost put the garland around herself, eliciting instant 'shhs' and laughter from the audience. Probably, the young lady was weighed in by the situation and was quite flummoxed by the flurry of directives received from various quarters - a common happening during weddings, since everyone seems to be wanting to desperately display his/her knowledge to impress the others!
To my query as to why she almost did the unthinkable, the poor girl gave me a weak smile!
3. A few reactions.
While driving, one comes across a lot many reactions from fellow drivers who traverse along. I shall put down a few that made me curious as to why they'd done so:-
(a) A Chevrolet Cruze LTZ came honking, tried to overtake thrice but couldn't do so because other
vehicles came in his way. Thereafter, he kept a discreet distance behind me without, even once, trying
to overtake!
(b) A Tata pick up truck kept honking continuously and slowed down drastically, after overtaking. After a
while, when I'd overtaken him, he showed his clenched fist at me. I couldn't register his reactions
further as I'd to turn away at the next junction. And no, I'd not tried to hamper his movement at all!
(c) A gleaming white Ambassador who kept honking but never even once attempted to overtake!
I'm curious as to why they had behaved that way. Was each one of them trying to eliminate the boredom that tends to set in while on long drives..............or am I a bad driver.... I wonder?
It looked so conspiratorial. We're driving down to Kovalam to attend a wedding in the family. Enroute, there were traffic snarls galore delaying us, for long hours, at various places. Enquiries elicited the weak alibi that most of the malayalees were out on the roads, doing their onam shopping, in the towns through which the wretched highway passes. Why I said that the reason meted out as the cause, did not hold water was that the policemen, on duty at crucial points, seemed to give priority to crossing traffic - sparse in comparison - than to the arterial one! The result was that there were serpentine queues of vehicles on the north-south axis which took an inordinately long time to clear!
Traffic snarls bring out the beasts in people behind the wheels. Listing out a couple:-
(a) Continuous use of the horn that gets to be irritable and grates on one's nerves. The sounds made by
certain contraptions can really jolt anyone. Wonder whether the law permits these ones?
(b) One's nicely aligned to the vehicles, before and after, while waiting for the impasse to pass when guys
overtake trying to squeeze into a slot ahead, raising doubts as to whether one had been foolish to be
law abiding in being in the queue!
I wasn't quite happy to be in that situation but had to grin and bear it, all the same.
2. The bride's faux pas.
Lekha's nephew, Avinash was getting married to Vinitha. As all nair weddings go, this too, had its fair share of gaffes and faux pas. To list just one, when the bride's father handed over the garland to her for adorning the groom she almost put the garland around herself, eliciting instant 'shhs' and laughter from the audience. Probably, the young lady was weighed in by the situation and was quite flummoxed by the flurry of directives received from various quarters - a common happening during weddings, since everyone seems to be wanting to desperately display his/her knowledge to impress the others!
To my query as to why she almost did the unthinkable, the poor girl gave me a weak smile!
3. A few reactions.
While driving, one comes across a lot many reactions from fellow drivers who traverse along. I shall put down a few that made me curious as to why they'd done so:-
(a) A Chevrolet Cruze LTZ came honking, tried to overtake thrice but couldn't do so because other
vehicles came in his way. Thereafter, he kept a discreet distance behind me without, even once, trying
to overtake!
(b) A Tata pick up truck kept honking continuously and slowed down drastically, after overtaking. After a
while, when I'd overtaken him, he showed his clenched fist at me. I couldn't register his reactions
further as I'd to turn away at the next junction. And no, I'd not tried to hamper his movement at all!
(c) A gleaming white Ambassador who kept honking but never even once attempted to overtake!
I'm curious as to why they had behaved that way. Was each one of them trying to eliminate the boredom that tends to set in while on long drives..............or am I a bad driver.... I wonder?
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