8 kms - 80 mins

No. That’s not a record set by anyone in slow biking. That’s the time I have taken today to reach my office. I have been breaking my own records every day. Yesterday it was 60 minutes, today it was 80! Hope the arithmetic progression doesn’t continue in the same manner!!!

Sometimes, I get amazed looking at Bangalore’s traffic. I wonder where all these vehicles come from. It is understood if it happens at peak hours, e.g. 900hrs to 1100 hrs or 1800hrs to 2000hrs, something like that. But no!!! In Bangalore you’ll find traffic anytime of the day, wherever you go, in whichever vehicle you are. Doesn’t matter. We welcome people here by displaying our awesome traffic handling capabilities.

A particular bottleneck scene is very artistic. People cramming in from all sides, throwing their vehicles on yours (no matter which type of vehicle it is). It’s like an adolescent boy trying to come close to his love interest just to have that ONE touch of hers. On the other hand, people shouting at each other, either because someone’s bumped into someone or they are too cautious and driving extremely slow. Everyone who’s behind someone thinks that they are Michael Schumaker and can make it faster and easier than their leaders through the horrible jam. Then there’s the best scene. One highlighting factor in our artist’s masterpiece of “A Perfect Bangalore Morning”, the POLICEMEN!!! No matter however grave the situation is, these people will be the coolest on roads. Perhaps, even they realize that there’s no point in controlling the traffic now. Let them solve it on their own. So, there they are!!! Standing in the middle of the road, gazing at vehicles, raising their hands sometimes (in an effort to direct traffic), and talking over their cell phones simultaneously. Must say that they are the real multi- tasking guys!!!

P.S they poke their noses in between as well.

A scary thought just ran across my mind while I was driving. If this is the situation in 2010, imagine what our grand-children would see!!! There might be 3-4 fly-overs (or even more) on top of each other leading to the same destination. I could hear them saying, “take the Level 3 fly-over here which will connect to the Level 5 fly-over going underneath the Level 2-A fly-over and then take a U-turn to connect to Level 1-D fly-over!!!” Whoa. This sounds similar to a game show called “Crystal Maze” that used to get aired on Star plus (when it was an English channel). Ask yourself if you’d be able to drive like this.
A lot has been spoken about Bangalore’s traffic and I am sure, you’ll find at-least a 100 articles on the net regarding this. But, somehow, I feel that some measures need to be taken to control this horrifying traffic, which seems to be exploding in millions every passing day!!!