While entering the home stretch a little past midnight recently, I suddenly noticed that traffic medians had sprung up in the street leading to my house. It was pitch dark and only the headlights of my car showed me the way forward at that unearthly hour.
A closer look produced a startling revelation. These were all cows lying in a line, spending their night there. I wondered who had trained them to walk up to the middle and sit in such an orderly manner! I thought of honking and making them to give way but abandoned the thought in view of the growing cow-vigilantism in our area. Unfortunately, there was space, just enough, on that stretch for a two-wheeler to pass through, given the scenario of the lane having been partitioned into two by the bovines. Why the civic administration preferred to remain a mute spectator without taking corrective action to drive away the bovines, which are not just traffic hazards but also a significant contributor to the growing problems of sanitation, remained a mystery to me. Anyway, I reversed the car and chose to park it in my friend’s house on the road leading to my street.
But driving through the maze of cars was proving to be a nightmare. Reaching my friend's house appeared an impossible task and I could consider myself lucky if only I could find some safe space en route to leave my car for the night. I scanned the whole area but could not find a vacant spot, not even on the adjoining roads and lanes. Cars of every make and model, with white boards and yellow boards, had occupied every inch of space on the road. Some were parked right in front of the gates of houses. I wondered how the inmates would be able to open the gate and come out, and shuddered to think of their plight should they be required, in an emergency, to rush someone to hospital. I failed to reason out why the police who patrol the arterial roads of the city never trained their attention on these vehicles which are ‘abandoned’ every night by their owners in public places, causing untold hardship to the residents of the area but leaving a potential security threat.
Probably if the law enforcement agencies chose to tow away these cars, hampering free movement on the streets, they would get to know the real owners and be able to take corrective action in public interest. The concept of car-free roads had caught the imagination of the people, in a different sense, I thought to myself. They probably consider it as another form of carnival to relax and make merry during the weekends and later hang on to the habitual practice of taking out their vehicles at the drop of a hat and park at will. Who knows, these cars could also be stolen ones, safely abandoned here by the culprits before making good their escape, I was prompted to think aloud while still trying my luck at locating parking space.
With patience running out, I prayed for divine intervention. Soon my prayers were answered, when I spotted a garbage pile near a transformer. The place was stinking but the space was sufficient enough for me to drive my car over it safely, to be left there till dawn. An inner voice told me the owners of the cattle would drive them away and the cab operators would also pull out their cars from the ‘parking slots’, thus freeing necessary space for movement of vehicular traffic on that stretch. The spot was also ‘safe’ as no one would be able to withstand the stench emanating from the waste piled up, which was being guarded by the stray dogs of the locality. At best the rag-pickers would curse me for inconveniencing them!
Parking the car over the garbage pile, I trudged home.
maharajapuram.s.vaidyanathan@gmail.com
