Thursday, October 07, 2010

Tale of Three Cities - The Traffic Cop

There is a lot that you can tell about a city by looking at its traffic cops. The way he gestures the traffic to stop, and more importantly to move on, how he chides errant drivers, and last but not the least how he simply stands there holding his wireless set in his hand, it almost mirrors the way the entire city goes about its job and life.

Last few months on the job have taken me around the country, (Ok, if not the country but atleast the golden quadrilateral), given me an opportunity to observe the different ways in which various cities go about their daily lives, and how they influence the style of working of people in seemingly same types of jobs, for example traffic cops.

Take for example how they signal the traffic to keep moving; look closely at a Kolkatan traffic sergeant and it would seem as if he is gently coaxing the traffic to move on just like a shepherd guides his herd; calm, patient and poised. Move westward and the Mumbaiya traffic policeman would seem like a puppet-master who seems to be guiding the motions of the traffic like puppets, confident, business-like and in-control. Move up and try analyzing the motions of a Dilli police walla, and here you will come across someone who is rough, smacks of authority and impatient; it looks like as if he is slapping the vehicles from one side of the junction to the other.

Or maybe you might want to observe them when they are standing idly while waiting for a VIP convoy to pass. A Dilli police wallah, with his khakhi shirt barely tucked into his trousers (which he pulls up every now and then), who thinks he has seen (and will see) a thousand such cavalcades, and couldn't care less, stands there, scratching his crotch and waiting for the whole tamasha to get over as soon as possible. On the other end of the spectrum is the Kolkata traffic sergeant, dressed sharply in his all-white uniform and black boots, with sunglasses firmly in place, scolding errant jaywalkers who dare to cross the rope meant to hold back pedestrians. And then there is the Mumbai policeman who keeps a weary eye both on the halted traffic as well as the empty road, ready to snap a smart salute to the dignitaries travelling in the convoy.

Probably, a traffic policeman is not the right way to go about judging a city, or so a lot of people would claim; But is he not? I ask you, shaped by the combined behavior of each one of us who stops, and passes by a traffic junction, at times breaking the law, jumping the RED light, at times obeying it, moving on with the GREEN light, and sometimes flirting with it.




P.S: Before any motives or intentions are ascribed to the author, I would like to declare that I prefer to call myself a Dilliwala, have been in love with the city (if not its people) for as long as I can remember. Bombay (I prefer calling it that) is a city I respect (I don't think I can ever have a more intimate relationship than that with the city). And Kolkata is my latest crush, just can't stop gushing about anything and everything in this city.

P.P.S. - Didn't write about Chennai in this post, as the memories of the place seem to be fading away, expect the next blog post to be a 'Tale of Four Cities', once I come back from Chennai.

2 comments:

aritreyee said...

Interesting observation actually..never thought of it this way! made a good read!

Amit Tyagi said...

@aritreyee - thanks