I guess, you might have guessed it already, by reading the title. Something related to politics or government or our society. This time, I just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The incident happened last Wednesday (Sept 17). I had noticed in the news paper that morning about traffic restrictions in Bangalore due to the visit of the new leader of Nepal. Since I read only the headlines, I didn’t know which part of Bangalore, it will happen. Only when one of my colleagues pointed out that he plans to leave office early due to this [my office is near Bommanahalli], that I noticed the restrictions will be in the Hosur road between 5:30pm and 7:30pm. The ‘VIP’ was visiting the electronic city it seems.
I thought he was kidding when I heard him first. You can’t be serious. That is the peak time. All those traffic from electronic city will be stopped? I couldn’t believe it. But I didn’t want to take my chances. I too wanted to get out early. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to the road, it was almost 6pm.
There was a whole battalion of police in the road. I tried my best to cross the silk board flyover. After that I could take some short cuts. Just before the flyover, I was stopped by the police. Had I left my office one minute earlier, I would have passed the police. I was at the front of the queue. They stopped all the traffic through the silk board flyover. I had to wait nearly 30 minutes. I was lucky since I was almost in the front of the queue. I had my camera with me. I decided to have some snaps and thought about writing this blog.
You can see the queue in the service road next to the Hosur main road. The police escorts cleared all the vehicles from the main road to the side roads.
A policeman asking the 2-wheelers to park to the side
I guess the black sedan is the one which ‘contains’ the lucky ‘B*st**d’
You can see the silk board flyover devoid of traffic except for the pilot vehicles. Yes, all the vehicles in the road are escort vehicles. I took this picture around 1 minute after the black sedan passed, so that you can imagine the number of escort vehicles. It’s all the tax payers’ money I guess. I bet you won’t see this road this free of traffic during day time let alone for the peak times, except for ‘special’ occasions like these.
I don’t have any problems with ministers or ‘VIPs’ visiting places or attending meetings. I agree that they had announced it early. But, as a citizen and a tax payer, I believe that I have the right to disagree with whatever they do or decide to do. Everyone knows that 5:30pm – 8:00pm in Bangalore is the peak traffic time. They could have chosen some other time for this visit, probably before noon or afternoon. Why the hell they always choose/want to make the life of ordinary people more and more miserable? When did they stop caring for ordinary people? Or when have they ever cared anything about citizens? Since they are the leaders, they may be trying to lead the way for us. Who knows?
ps: feel free to fill in the quoted/starred words (eg: ‘VIP’) with whatever you like.
The incident happened last Wednesday (Sept 17). I had noticed in the news paper that morning about traffic restrictions in Bangalore due to the visit of the new leader of Nepal. Since I read only the headlines, I didn’t know which part of Bangalore, it will happen. Only when one of my colleagues pointed out that he plans to leave office early due to this [my office is near Bommanahalli], that I noticed the restrictions will be in the Hosur road between 5:30pm and 7:30pm. The ‘VIP’ was visiting the electronic city it seems.
I thought he was kidding when I heard him first. You can’t be serious. That is the peak time. All those traffic from electronic city will be stopped? I couldn’t believe it. But I didn’t want to take my chances. I too wanted to get out early. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to the road, it was almost 6pm.
There was a whole battalion of police in the road. I tried my best to cross the silk board flyover. After that I could take some short cuts. Just before the flyover, I was stopped by the police. Had I left my office one minute earlier, I would have passed the police. I was at the front of the queue. They stopped all the traffic through the silk board flyover. I had to wait nearly 30 minutes. I was lucky since I was almost in the front of the queue. I had my camera with me. I decided to have some snaps and thought about writing this blog.
You can see the queue in the service road next to the Hosur main road. The police escorts cleared all the vehicles from the main road to the side roads.
A policeman asking the 2-wheelers to park to the side
I guess the black sedan is the one which ‘contains’ the lucky ‘B*st**d’
You can see the silk board flyover devoid of traffic except for the pilot vehicles. Yes, all the vehicles in the road are escort vehicles. I took this picture around 1 minute after the black sedan passed, so that you can imagine the number of escort vehicles. It’s all the tax payers’ money I guess. I bet you won’t see this road this free of traffic during day time let alone for the peak times, except for ‘special’ occasions like these.
ps: feel free to fill in the quoted/starred words (eg: ‘VIP’) with whatever you like.
