A Clockwork Orange

I travel 25kms north and back south everyday. I take the company’s generously given transport service (Did someone say that there are no free lunches?). Considering my time of travel and also the traffic, I do spend a lot of time commuting. Along the way, unless one is sleepy, there are a lot of things people do to kill time. Talk. Sense or Non-Sense, they need to talk. Joke. Bad or Worse, they (the elderly!) need to. Gossip. Fiction or Insane, they need to spread the word. (This considering that there are none from the fairer sex aboard which prompted a friend to call our cab “The Fag Express”). Music. iPod or Music Phone. Rock or Bhajan. When you are listening to loud music on your earplugs, it’s interesting to see two people converse without trying to lip read. It’s infact fascinating to see the myriad expressions of the human face and how the intricate movement of each facial muscle conveys a different sentiment.
But when you are not doing any of the above, you look out and observe. Or You think about things that you would have probably never thought about.

There are two guys filling up water from a cracked pipeline. Some would squirm at the very thought of regular filtered water. There are people walking on the road. There are vehicles on the footpath. A guy carries a bag to office. He never wore a bag to college. Some god's special day. There is a long cavalcade. They have seated god in a chariot and taking him around the city. God was bored being confined to the temple. The traffic is thrown awry. People’s hallelujah isn’t loud enough. So they are using loud speakers. Off late god isn't able to hear people's whisper.
It’s Independence Day. The tri-color is all over the place. They are beaming with immense sense of patriotism. They are spitting on a “don't spit here” sign and throwing garbage all around the waste bin except into it. IITs and IIMs were established to nurture the best brains for the service of the country. They are singing the star sprangled banner. Some one comes and says that he is making an affordable car for the common man. Elitism starts parading. Half of them are suddenly worried about the environment and the other half about congestion. They would not dare care about a common man’s dream. 'A' breaks a traffic rule and 'B' stares at him badly. 'B' had broken one yesterday and is going to break one tomorrow. This is the land of the Kama sutra. People look south when someone even mentions the dreaded 3 letter word. A lady is haggling saying that she will give only Rs.4/kg. The vendor had asked for Rs.5/kg. The same lady goes and spends thousands on a fancy dinner. It’s mid-winter. The traveler isn't settling for a non-AC bus. A nation of a billion people. One gold medal. Human eye has blind spots. Brains are not compensating. The limited vision is protecting us.

And all the while I thought strange things happened only in fictional books.