Frustrations of a Citizen

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.

Harthal Festival

State: Kerala
‘Official’ Festival: Harthal a.k.a Bandh

In the state of Kerala – which is located at the southern most tip of Republic of India - we celebrate a unique festival. According to the official records, the state festival is called Onam which is celebrated once a year in memory of a long lost paradise. But recently, there has been some change in situations. There is another festival which is gaining popularity. Its called the Harthal. Previously it used to be called Bandh. The name change was due to a court order which says it conflicts what’s written on the Indian constitution.

The most unique feature of this festival is that it can happen at any time of the year. And it can occur any number of times a year. Some time it can be celebrated in a local area, some times all over the state and some other times, it can occur all over India. So it can also be called as a national festival as well. Sometimes they last for 12 hrs, and at other times even 24 hours. The most recent one happened was an all India one and it lasted for 24 hours.

During the harthal day, the supporters of the group who called for a harthal, wake up early in the morning and go out in the street to celebrate the festival. They stop all the vehicles in the roads and ask them 'politely' to participate in the harthal with them. They even stop train services some times. The supporters conduct rallies during the harthal day which is very inspiring to the common man. If there are any shops open during the day, they come in masses and help the hardworking shop keeper relax and enjoy the festival by closing the shop. At times some of the supporters gets a little excited and ‘accidentally’ break some windows of an office or a vehicle. If the police arrest them, don’t worry, the other supporters will help him escape. The government also supports the festival by providing all the help needed for harthal-ites. How can a government say no to people having entertainment?

This year itself, there had been around 100 harthals in Kerala. For the occurrence of this particular event, there are no special reasons. Any group who has some courage can declare a particular day as harthal. It’s up to a citizens will, whether to participate or not in the festival (theoretically). If you are willing to participate in the festival, you have to stay home and do nothing. That’s where the greatness of the people in Kerala deserves the limelight. 90% of the people willfully participate in the festival. No travels, no shopping, no work. As for the rest of the 10% who are stupid enough to go against harthal, they get special gifts like mental torture, attack on property etc.

Usually a harthal is called up by political parties. Sometimes even religious bodies also call for it. Regardless of which political party or which religion or which class of the society a person belong to, the people of Kerala supports a Harthal with their whole heart. That’s why I recommend it to be considered a national festival.

Some of the citizens who don’t like these festivals came up with a case in the court against the previous form which was called bandh. That’s when the court banned the festival. But the clever supporters found a workaround; they simply changed the name of the festival to harthal. Recently the high court of Kerala made a comment about these festivals which goes on something like this, “If the government is also supporting these 'festivals', even the God cannot save Kerala”. From what?? Need to spend some time thinking about it.

For more information: http://www.harthal.com/