From every direction

Red, yellow and green, no matter what colour is it, all are same for us. You may think that I am talking about colours or Holi once again. It is sad that those are not the colours of Holi. There is an escape from colours of Holi. However, there is no escape from those three colours. Those are the colours of traffic signals, which I face everyday of my life. However, I am learning fast how to escape those three colours.

I think that our government is wasting too much money on innovations in traffic signals, using LED(s) to save energy and putting timers to save fuel. Government does not know that here in Pune, one of the most educated cities of India, we all are colour-blind. Thus, we do not follow those signals and so we do not need them. We rush from every direction no matter what is the colour.

Driving in Pune can be compared with driving in ‘well of death’, an Indian carnival show. There are no traffic rules. Footpaths are the best short cuts to avoid traffic. Even though there are lanes, one may always get some surprise packages from the opposite direction of the road. To add to this there are auto rickshaws that can take U-turns anytime and in any direction and PMT buses, the most famous devils on roads are driven by the most reckless drivers.
Sometimes I feel driving schools, to teach how to take easy shortcuts, makes a good business sense for the city. In fact I have already decided to name it after an animated series “The reckless driver” with the punch line ‘I can’t see a thing’.

Walking in Pune is as risky as driving cars or riding bikes. One may have to be very careful, because footpaths are also permitted roads for vehicles! When I was young, I learned in school to see right and then see left before crossing the roads. However, after coming to Pune, I realized how wrong those schools are. Schools in Pune need a special book having points such as: 

• Not only see left and right, but also see behind (Note – you may need one extra eye).
• Footpaths are as risky as roads (Note – Bikers pay taxes and are licensed to drive on footpaths too).
• You may need a helmet especially for walking.
• You can relax and walk when there is traffic Police (Note – vehicle owners may rush from any direction when there is no traffic Police) 

I used to feel that I am a very good rider / driver. However, I realised soon that I was the only one running thus I was always a winner. Driving / riding in village was like driving/ riding in heaven. It has not taken long to turn a winner of a village to loser of a city. However, I am happy that I am learning and may be one day, not today, not tomorrow, not this season, probably not the next season either but one day, I am gonna wake up and suddenly I’m gonna be like every other driver in every other city of India where rushing is everything and nothing else matters.

What is a real Holi?

Festival of colour, it had been long time since I played Holi, after all it played mostly when we are in schools or colleges. As we grow up the fever of Holi tends to decrease, the reasons being it takes long time to remove colours and chemical colours cause skin irritation. However, the festival is truly enjoyable if played in a proper manner i.e. with natural colours. I have seen many pictures from Rajasthan where many people play it together. Those pictures are awesome and colourful.

I am posting some pictures by Poras Chaudhary.

  

In 2010, I experience my first Holi with natural colours. I really felt like a 5 year old who sees only shade of colours and nothing else. Playing it with young kids was fun. They play it with entire heart – running, dancing, singing and some times putting colour on their own head. It is very difficult to recognize their faces in the herd. Those smile on colourful faces is worth a millions dollar. They shot ‘Holi hai’ all the week. It starts for them with water and balloons one week ahead of the actual day and ends after several weeks.

Morning 7 o‘clock, loud shout outside my house ‘Holi hai’ – ‘aaj to holi hai’. Young kids were shouting and waiting outside my house. I hate Holi mostly because of the chemical colours. However looking at those kids, I was unable to resist myself, thus I went to experience shades of colours. Red, yellow, blue and green, young Picasso, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci painted all my face. I was looking like one of those modern arts that no one can decode. They have thrown several buckets of colour over me. I haven’t played for too long, however it was most enjoyable moment of the year. Holi was on Monday, it has been almost a week but those kids still shout ‘Holi hai’! I mean that is what I call a real Holi.