Fines!

Thought for the day:The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else. -- E. E. Cummings

Two of them-strategic placement. On either side of the road, cleverly concealed behind either a tree or a pillar. People walk out of the bus stop, take the short cut to cross the small one-bus-and-one-car wide road. From the other side, people walk out of Carrefour, again in a hurry, and cross the road from there to the bus stop. Out come both the guys. Out come the notebooks. Hand over your labour card. Wham!You're fined AED 200. Go to Al Barsha and take it back. That place is another 50 dirhams away by taxi. So, AED 250*13= Rs. 3250/- gone. And, when a poor guy narrates this, I can't help but feel sorry for him. And, of course, my resolve to avoid crossing the road at non-zebra crossings deepens. Yep, life and money are too hard earned to let them go this way. I'm told by the guy that they fined @ 150 people that way, in the half hour that he was there(Obviously, peak hour, the time when people are returning home)...so, 150*Rs 3250/-. Go figure- if they start doing this in Andheri, for example, the Municipal coffers will be overflowing in no time at all. But then, human life there is slightly less valued there than it is, here. Hence, pedestrians crossing the road is one of the least worrying of topics.

----

 Ping!Ping! I was on my walk today and looked up, wondering what madman would be chucking pieces of chalk from his balcony. And, OMG..it was small hailstones..pieces of ice falling from the sky. Saw this little,maybe 7 yr ole rushing across the street, holding on to a building wall,flat, shouting 'Mummy,mummy'....well, maybe the tyke's not read enough about weather in his geography lessons,yet. I did wonder- was this weather 'normal' or was it a result of cloud seeding, like it was about two years back?

----

Came home, slightly drenched and feeling a bit exhausted..so,pressed the button for the elevator. It opens, and there's a guy inside dancing away in that small cubic,e,looking at himself in the full size(waist up) mirror inside. I wonder how long he's been dancing,with the door closed? He turns a bit red with embarassment, but, has to continue clicking his fingers and shaking his toes as the elevator door closes and we go up to the first floor!!ROFL..what a day!!Thank God it's Thursday tomorrow, and I had a good laugh a day before!!

Till next time,keep smiling.