Hey reader!
It’s been long since I had put up a post, and what is better than to resume the journey by revisiting one of my most favourite topics of the past. It enables us to reconnect with the previous posts and provides a fresh and energizing enthusiasm. I know….I know….I know. I had said that ‘Part III’ was the last part of ‘The People Around You’ series, but being stuck in a traffic jam for some long hours gave me ample time to observe the unique personalities around me and pushed me to write this post. So, what’s the wait for? Let’s begin with the BONUS post!
The sleepy. Traffic jams are boring, aren’t they? In fact, they are monotonous. So, people tend to sleep. And they aren’t to be blamed. How long do you expect someone to see the same cars, trucks, buses, two wheelers around himself/herself and be wide awake in their ennui while doing nothing? So, it’s better to take a quick nap, unless you are the one driving, of course.
The enjoying kind. They are the opposites of the sleepy kind. While the sleepy succumb to their boredom, enjoying ones carve their way out. What do they do? The answer is simple. Just put on your earphones, switch on your phone and you are good to go. Oftentimes, it happens that these people even wish that such a traffic time continues longer, so they can spend more time enjoying. They truly believe in the ideology, “the more, the merrier”.
The observer. This is not a general and common trait. Here, I am specifically talking about myself. I associate myself with the enjoying kind; however, in the long jam, a saturation point came that even the phone stopped being engaging or interesting. That was when I took up looking out of the windows and to be very honest, into other people’s cars. That is how this post came into being. Rest I believe there isn’t any need to elaborate.
The one who is driving. Here I narrate the sad tale of the one who has the most boring and irritating task, so to say. What are such people supposed to do? They can’t sleep, they can’t enjoy, they can’t observe because they can’t afford to be distracted in the middle of a hundred cars. Their task is only to give the accelerator a little push as the cars crawl. But in a jam which has proven itself to be stationary for long, I encountered this: “ accelerator se per hi hata diya….traffic chal to raha nahi hai.”
The one who has given up hope. As this and the previous category start with the same words, they are actually twins. The thin line of difference among them is that in the last one the one driving had given up hope, but in this one the criterion is applicable to all. If you at anytime encounter someone sitting with a sullen face, carrying a vibe of dullness, looking as if lost in thought (probably of, in what era they will reach their destination), just remember that I had mentioned them in my post.
The congested car. All of us at some point in our lives have experienced sitting in a car filled with people to its maximum capacity. 5 people sitting in a 5-seater or maybe sometimes 6; the 6th one being an additional kid sitting in his mother’s lap. In such a situation, already the discomfort is quite high and the traffic jam only performs the job of exacerbating it. At that point, what the passengers might be thinking while travelling, or I should say while sitting stiffly: “kitna lamba jam hai….already itni congestion hai….kab niklenge yahan se?”
The stroller. Tired while sitting? Body is getting stiff? Wanting some fresh air? Why keep these wishes inside. Get them fulfilled. Go and take a walk. It can be very convenient to hop out of the vehicle and take a stroll as long as the jam is stationary. While some move out to discover the root cause of the traffic, some just want to stretch themselves. Moreover, I encountered that one person had come out of the car, to let her pet dog take a walk as it would have been getting irritable in the car. So, the ultimate conclusion we can draw form these examples is that it is absolutely safe to briefly step out of the vehicle.
And with this we finish our list of the interesting personalities we may encounter in the traffic jam. From the last traffic jam I encountered (the inspiration of this post), I believe that traffic jams can be funny situations. Ironic, isn’t it? The condition where we find ourselves full of listlessness, boredom, and even fury, we may even see some humour.
Finally, I hope you enjoyed this humorous take on the people we find in a traffic jam and could identify with it. Do share your views in the comments section below.