It isn't a deadlock when you can come out of it

The other day I was travelling in bike towards Mount road. Due to the construction of Metro rail system there was a lot of traffic congestions & diversions. As a result we got delayed by 10 odd minutes. While I wasn’t complaining, my friend was angry for the delay allegedly caused by the inefficiency of the traffic police. It is not only my friend who feels that way, I see countless people complaining about the deadlock in roads. It is one thing to complain on the traffic jam when it is caused by Party meetings and accidents, but another to complain on something that which is bound to happen. In our busy lives we certainly don’t want to be bogged down by someone else, especially by unknown sources. But it is all the more wrong to distance oneself from the society and naming it as unknown source.

As our finances and personal requirements grow we make a lot of changes to the place we live in. It starts with relocating the furniture, to renovating the house, till adding a new floor to the building. We certainly aren’t bogged down by these changes because we know that they are for our betterment and hence take responsibility for that. Some may argue that these changes are done as per their requirements and at their convenience. To all of them, just think of your family members. There will certainly be someone who isn’t comfortable with the changes you are making in the house that they too live in. Yet they adjust and co-exist. To all of them who think these projects are improperly planned, sometimes your carefully planned schedule goes haywire due to some mistake on the constructor’s fault. So on the day you ought to attend an important meeting, you need to be at home monitoring the roof laying activity. You don’t cancel your meeting, at the same time you don’t postpone the roof laying activity as well. Somehow you meet ends and try to squeeze in both into your day.  Standing in the hot sun after rushing home from the meeting, as you look at the construction site, you get an unadulterated glee of seeing your dream come alive in front of you. The shouts of your boss, the unreasonable taxi guy who milked you understanding your emergency, nothing matters anymore. This amount of dedication and perseverance comes in, because you are so enamoured by the outcome of the project, that even at your wits’ end, you don’t give up.

When I see the earth movers digging the rubbish whilst the big cranes erecting ginormous beams, I don’t see disturbance in the form of road blockage. I see the city growing in front of me. Like a father who cherishes every moment of his daughter’s growth, I stand there to see the mammoth machines changing the face of the earth, the sky and in turn our lives. But are they for the betterment of the city? Like how a father gives a chance for the school that his daughter studies in to improve her, we would have to give a chance for the elected to make some changes to the city hoping for some betterment. For it is only by change, be it good or bad, can we get a chance for betterment.

To those who can’t see through my eyes, all I can ask is to try to be part of the system rather than complaining about it. When we got confused by the diversions that were placed, I noticed a policeman standing near the sign board ready to guide whoever was lost in the fuzzy layout. Not just there, there were policemen deployed at various locations to ease our troubles. Instead of complaining we should try to appreciate their efforts.

But for how long should we tolerate it, people ask to me. First there was the guindy flyover, and then came the Koyambedu junction, now the Metro rail system. Amidst these, there are the road repair and relaying activities as well. When will we get to bear the fruit? If the fruit is a city that will change into a dreamland in a jiffy like in Shankar movies, then you are better off in the dreamland. During the Guindy project, the whole of Tambaram and every other route connected to the major junction was caught in a deadlock for hours daily. So I needed to take the train instead. During the Koyambedu project, the traffic jam wasn’t that severe & yet I had the option to use the then finished guindy flyover or the Arcot road. Now with the Metro rail, I see even better strategic planning & organized approach to the whole project which has let me not to search for an alternative. This, my dear people is the fruit of patience.

To all those who want the world around them not to change, they should remember that the world doesn’t stop rotating, and the earth doesn’t stop changing. It is we who have to get along with the change.