Virendra's Blog

I was waiting for my cab, watching an old episode of Midsomer Murders, when my cellphone rang. I thought they had reached nearly twenty minutes early – must be a new driver. But when the ringing did not die after 5 seconds I knew it wasn’t him. We, the people of IT, who commute by cabs, always go by missed calls. Well, it was the guy who boards next to me and he was worried. “There is violence everywhere at Delhi borders. People are burning buses, throwing stones, blocking roads, asking for reservation (why doesn’t anybody ask for more schools or better roads with such fervor?). It is all over the TV. How will we manage to reach office?”
I don’t care and I will board the cab if it reaches. Obviously if there is actually something happening, the driver will not risk his car (a Tata Sumo costs over 6 lakhs, that is more than twice what most companies pay to the average Indian IT guy in a year).

All through the way, everybody was hooked to his phone explaining to his next kin – “I have to go to office” and the other side saying “It is so terrible, TV says there are burning buses …” (I don’t want to start over again). There was panic in their voice and they contacted everybody they knew just to make sure this trip was not their last.

Well, we reached office safely. There was no traffic jam , no blocked road, no stones were hurled at our car, there was no fire (and hence no smoke), the burning buses had all disappeared and the buses were running jam packed as usual. Well, so much for the TV reports and live feeds showing violence on Delhi borders and buses burning … (here I go again).

I believe it has more to do with Monday blues. People are willing believe anything to avoid something they don’t want. Somebody hears there’s a bus burning and he will not go that way (and he won’t try another way either). About the media … the lesser said is more. The only stories you ever get are sensational or stupid. If something is not, it will still be portrayed that way. So instead of telling us that road-blocks were removed after 11AM when Chief Minister of Rajasthan agreed to hold talks with the agitators, they continued showing old footage of burning buses and repeating the same old story. (This is called 24 hour journalism my dear friends and this is what fetches Rupees).

But deep inside my heart, I also wished – may be we will see some hooligans after all and then we will turn back home and I could avoid office and could finish that episode of Midsomer Murders and get an extra couple hours’ sleep. And I still hope, as the phone guy from the cab says – “they (agitators) will be back, it is hot and they must be having water or lunch break”. Let’s hope for better news tomorrow.