Idler turns critic-My state

First of all I would like to clarify that here ‘My state’ doesn’t mean state of my mind or my body or my heart or eyes or kidney or liver or any other body part…!!! It here refers to the state where I live…My state-UTTAR PRADESH

It’s an irony that the region which was selected by the three most respected personalities to be their birthplace (two being Lord RAMA and Lord KRISHNA) is now at the bottom of almost all the aspects related to development. I might talk about the development potential of this state and the bottlenecks to those developments in the next post.

I spent first 17 years of my life here and then returned after a hiatus of 7 years. One thing that I noticed this time (may be I didn’t notice this thing previously as I too was an unadulterated UPite or UPian at that time) was the sense of heroism in the people of this belt. I’ll give a short detail of one of my journeys from Lucknow to Firozabad to give you an idea of what I am talking about…and why I am taking about whatever I am talking about.

Well, the story dates back to sometime in Sept-Oct’08. My train from Lucknow to Firozabad got cancelled as it originated in Bihar and the people there had stopped all the transports from their state to anywhere else as one of the students from Bihar was killed by police in Maharashtra.

However, I came to know about the train’s cancellation just minutes before the scheduled departure of the train as the person at the enquiry counter kept on saying “train will arrive at the right time”. “No problem…I expect this here” I thought. Anyways, I enquired and came to know about an AC bus from Alambagh bus station. Frankly speaking, it was a jolt for me to be told that there were AC intra-state buses running in UP…The last time I travelled by bus in UP, there wasn’t even a decent semi-deluxe bus..!!! Unexpected.

So, there I was, at the bus stand, with luggage at the scheduled time…I straightaway went to the ticket counter and wow…the scene there was just overwhelming. It was so nice to see that though these people were supposed to be a bit more ‘cultured’ as this was a counter for AC Deluxe buses only, yet they hadn’t forgotten the sense of heroism that is attached with every UP walah since his birth. And thus, following the principle of “line wahin se shuru hoti hai jahan ham khade hote hain”, everyone was trying to push others and reach the counter first.

Though I am also a UPite/UPian, yet I am now an impure one with experience of so many other places. So instead of following Mr bachchan’s principle from ‘deewar’ I tried to explain the ‘cultured’ people about the merits of a queue. After a heated debate of 5-6 minutes, I was surprisingly, able to bring them in a queue…!!! Suddenly there entered another UP born hero…he came…he saw…he smiled…he ignored the queue and went directly to the ticket counter and tried to insert his hand in the semi-circular opening of the counter window, along with the person whose turn it was as per the queue…and voila…!! All the hell broke loose once again…!!!

I don’t remember how I managed to get the ticket in the end but I am sure the UPian inside me, must have helped me. I never expected the bus to be on time, even though, lucknow was the starting station. But for my utter dismay, the bus was there at the bus stop just 35 minutes after its scheduled departure. The driver parked it just in front of me and its headlights shone on my face as if it was trying to say “howzzat…? You thought I would be late by 3-4 hours???!!” I thought of replying by telling it about the punctuality of Mumbai locals but then changed my mind as I didn’t want to bereave the people of the wonderful experience of waiting for their bus at the ‘modern’ bus stands of UP.

So at last I stepped inside the bus to home and moved to my seat. Well, I won’t say that I was surprised to see someone sitting there already, but yes, I was a little annoyed when he refused to shift to some other place saying that seat numbers on the ticket don’t mean anything and its first come first snatch…!!! The conductor also gave me the same piece of wisdom and advised me to occupy someone else’s seat.

Ultimately, I took a seat; put my mobile in the vibration mode and prepared to sleep…how stupid of me…just a few years out of the state and it seems that I’ve forgotten the basic codes here. If you are a UPian, you are not less than a celebrity…you don’t need to worry about others…there is no need to drive on the right side of the road, no need to stop on red lights, no need to use indicators, no need to have basic courtesies…and though I had forgotten these basic things, others were still holding on to these traditions tight. So, on an average, after every 6.5 minutes, there was someone’s mobile ringing in full volume and of course, it was not only picked up each time, but the whole bus was made to hear the important conversations in high pitch and animated tones.

And the number of times the no-stop bus from Lucknow to Agra stopped on the way just confirmed the hypothesis that rules can’t bind the heroes and when a region is filled with them, he who tries to enforce the rules or follow those rules is an idiot amidst the heroes. How could I be one of them…!!! I quickly switched my mobile to ringing mode, started chatting with the half asleep person sitting next to me, switched on the lights above my seat and made the driver stop the bus at the point nearest to my home regardless of where the bus stop was. 1-2 people did try to intervene but couldn’t do anything as the UPian inside me had woken up…and truly speaking, it really did feel great to be among the heroes once again…

Damn you law fearing, protocols following and courtesy showing idiots…!!!