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.

Comments

Yamini Meduri said…
:D

even i wonder yaar.....what the guy must be dancing....n that too in the elevator..!! funny..!!
3/26/2009 4:19 AM
austere said…
Agog.
Dancing in the elevator? How did you not burst out laughing?

And hailstones? Really??
3/26/2009 9:36 AM
Vinita Apte said…
amit....I really admire that guy dancing in the elevator....as we get older it becomes difficult for us to be childlike and not affected by what people will think...I have done that too believe me its fun.....just let go once in a while
3/26/2009 12:28 PM
Unknown said…
ha ha... cool post Amit.. Yes..if they start taking fines from people in Pune for not using the zebra crossing, the municipal coffers would certainly overflow. Heck, imposing a fine on stopping on the Stop line has also filled coffers to some extent... :-) Indians are truly incorrigible :-)
3/27/2009 6:24 AM
Keshi said…
Hey Amit guess wut? Im bak already :)


**The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else

exactly my thoughts right now...so being myself, Im bak ;-)


Keshi.
3/27/2009 7:26 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Perception

Image
  Hi all positive people.. a topic I often think over.. it's something which helped a lot in changing my thoughts towards the positive side (Again, learned via the Secret)... and, still does, in this always continual learning curve. The subject: Perception... my own perception: Think over it, specially, your negative thoughts and emotions about people and things - you find someone to be angry, you find them to be always complaining, you hate(That's the worst negative word, according to me.. better to dislike than hate, if you have to) someone or something. Think over it... are those persons or things like that? Or, it it your perception of how they are? Have you tried to put yourself in their place to see if they are, deep inside worried about something else, and that worry comes out as irritation towards you? One of the best remedies: Smile, bless that person or those persons and wish them all the best.. if they don't change, nee, not them, but YOUR perception of them does...
Read more

Inventions and Discoveries

I'm really curious. Who invented the 'Va'. Or the 'Sha'. Or the 'Wi'. Or some such words. No, they're not some illnesses or prefixes. These are the words we invent when talking to people. I see the usage the max, specially in Baroda. Like: 1. Chai-Vaai peeni hai?(Want to have some Chai-Vaai?) 2. Naashta-Vaashta kar liya?(Did you have Naashta-Vaashta?) 3. Chutney-Vutney hai kya?( Is there any chutney-vutney?) 4. Lift-Wift nahin hai kya building mein?(Isn't there a Life-Wift in the building?) 5. Bombay-Wombay/ Dubai-Shubai kab jaa rahe ho ab?(When are you going to ....?) 6. Paise-Vaise milenge time pe ya nahin?(Will you get Paise-Vaise on time or not?) There are so many others I come across during the day, like, say speaker-veeker, phone-vone, kapde-vapde, dukaan-vukaan, that I have these rhyming words coming out of my ears, and, Arghhh!! Since the last few days, even I've started talking like this. Hopefully it won't be too rampant on my blo...
Read more

Tag:What's in your bag?

Image
(Disclaimer: all the briefcase pics are courtesy goo-gling) Sush ,nee, SS has tagged me(thanks for that,SS)-the (ahem) only guy picked to do the tag...curiosity @ what I carry in my briefcase,apparently.:) So,here goes...be ready to get shocked??Not really.. ---- Currently: Answer is : Nothing..:)hehe..why? Coz I don't carry a bag or a briefcase. Some months back, I decided that I was fed up of carrying...(Well,that appears below)...anything to work. Just decided' Khaali haath aaye the hum, khaali haath jaayenge' applies to my work place,too..and..the rest,as they say, is history..so while people look proud lugging their laptops,their lunches, et al everyday to work..and sweating away in this humid weather, I'm cool,calm, collected...no pressure on the arms,so to speak. All the 'necessities', from otrivin to homeopathic medicine to headache tabs,biscuits,sweet awla,sunflower seeds ..are kept in the drawer of my desk. ---- To continue the tag from the...
Read more