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.