Thoughts

" There is a traffic jam on a particular road and hence take an alternative route, now enjoy the music " is the general message on the FM radio in the car. It set me thinking, I hear this almost everyday when I am driving in Mumbai, India and yet it is just treated like any other news ... or may be not. It has sort of become "no news" because it does not contain anything that I already do not know. Probably the day there is no traffic jam will sort of become the news! It is a pity that we (all) know it yet we are either unable to do anything (which I hope is not true) or probably think what can I do about it (reasonable to think this is true)?.  Why is it that we are prepared to spend time in the traffic day in and day out and still not worry about it? Technology advancing, IQ of people increasing, everything seems to be progressing (economy?) and so is traffic! There are several though processes. Several of them blaming the government. Popular amo...

My father, a central government of India employee, made sure we made our religious LTA (leave travel allowance) when he was in service. Thought there was no IRCTC , my father almost always made sure we had all the tickets reserved in advance, which meant a trip to the railway station and long wait in the queue and with a finite probability of not getting your tickets after hours of standing in the queue.  Once the tickets in hand, these journeys those days used to be great, especially because my father used to make it a point to write to all his friends about our train travel, the date and the likely time it would hit the station close to them.  Invariably, we had someone or the other come and meet us along the way at the stations that our train used to stop, so this once in 4 years LTA meant we did meet our friends and relatives albeit for a couple of minutes on the platform.  As kids the most interesting aspect, more than just getting to meet them, was t...