Thursday, May 26, 2005

In the waiting line

"Do you believe
In what you see
Motionless wheel
Nothing is real
Wasting my time
In the waiting line
Do you believe in
What you see" - Zero 7 (In the waiting line)

The only thing I hate more than waiting in queues is having to wait longer.

Incident 1

In Gurgaon, India, arguably the fastest growing city in Inida, the roads are all very wide. They are a minimum of three lanes on either side. Given such good infrastructure and given I have a Maruti Baleno, an unassuming car with a great pickup, I quickly shifted to the fifth gear and was cruising. Traffic was smooth and everyone was driving at around 80 kmph. Suddenly this smaller pea-sized car pulled up in front and refused to go faster than 50.
In India we drive on the left side of the road, and we overtake on the right. So I pulled up closer to her (yes! her!) and started honking. No movement. Another 500m later I flashed my lights. Nope. Didn't care. She had two lanes to move into on the left, but hey, she owned the road!
About 10 blocks later she turned right, without indicating.

Had I been driving my lorry I would have hit her!

Incident 2

I parked my car in the basement of a mall, and was waiting for the elevator. There were 3 more people with me and 2 more behind them. The capacity of the elevator was 11. Suddenly, this rotund woman jumped in front of us with her 2 children in tow. Right up to the door of the elevator. Did she not see us waiting? What was her hurry? Unanwered questions, as sometimes we just don't raise our voice to object. We should!

Had I been corpulent too I would have told her to move.

Incident 3

We were waiting at the cash counter, waiting for our turn to place the order. Suddenly, this hand from nowhere comes around us with a 100 rupee bill, and a boombox voice from behind yells, "Two dosas please!" (I call this whole move, the Ryan-Colin move, if you've seen 'Whose line is it anyway?', you will know) The cashier takes the cash, looks at me sincerely and asks me if I want anything else. As I stood speechless, the faceless guy (Yes! guy! I don't somehow picture a woman with her arms around me) moves up and asks for a Pepsi. Did he not see the queue? He must not have had a meal in days though it wasn't at all obvious.

Really, Whose line is it anyway?

What do we do? Do we tell them politely to move? Will they?
If they do not, can we push them aside? Should we?
Is the only way to deal with horrible civic sense, more horrible civic sense?