NAGPUR once took pride in its beautiful and
smooth roads. But the situation is turning
from bad to worse with every passing week.
With so much development taking place, people
hoped that driving on the city’s roads would be a
‘suhana safar’, but instead, it is like ‘zor ka jhatka
hay zoro se lage’. The road diversions, potholes and
mud and sand dumps by the roadside, the growing
traffic etc have made commuters of Nagpur such
‘pros’ that I bet Rohit Shetty can do casting for his
next from among the Nagpurians.
Because of development activities, the already
smallroads have beenreduced in width further.The
art and science behind speed-breakers is another
amusing factor of the city’s roads.Ithink they are
more helpful in breaking bone of a person rather
than the vehicle’s speed. Many of them are made so
unscientifically, it hurts, literally.
There is also no denying that traffic has gone up
in the city and therefore the wait at traffic signals
has become longer and tiresome.
Ona positivenote, I am also grateful to theNagpur
roads because they have helped me develop my
patience level. Life has taughtme that the traffic signal will not always remain red, it will turn green and
one will be able to move forward.
This life lesson
struck me when I was waiting for the 5th round of
signals. Also, if you could drive on the city’s roads
and in the its traffic without cursing anyone, then
you are surely attaining ultimate standards of peace
and tranquility.Ihave been subjected to ‘enjoying’
the rains with potholes. Trying to keep myself safe
in rains and charting my way through waterlogged
areas where the probability game works, one doesn’t know if one would encounter a straight, normal
road or a big, deep pothole.
Then there is the problem of honking. A person may be 100 m away and
yet people want to honk. While driving I feel the
need to have insurance of my body organs because
after going through the ups-downs, zigzag, and crisis-cross across the roads I feel my organ system
might be getting disturbed. My liver might go up
and hit the lungs and all outside chaos on the roads
might create a mess inside.
At the end when I come home finally after all the
commute on the best roads of the city, I feel like I
have won a war and the helmet is my crown as I
march proudly towards home, waiting for my mom
to do my ‘raj tilak’. After all, I have come home victorious from the city’s roads.
By Urvi Shah