Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Rude? That's news?

My beloved city has just been voted the rudest city in the world. Worthy citizens have sprung to its defense claiming that Bombay/Mumbai has a heart of gold.

Well, that's as may be, but it certainly has a tongue of nettles and the patience of a viper.

Anyone who has experienced the cacophonous impatience of our roads, or the heedless viciousness of the train-boarding stampede, or the deliberate disdain for others manifested in the bhajan-singing or card-playing commuter groups, or the middle-finger-in-your-face attitude of the hawker who displaces the pedestrian and the pedestrian who encroaches on the motorist's road and the motorist who weaves into another's lane, or any of the million babus sitting in their Kafka-esque labyrinths awaiting the unsuspecting mortal who dares to enter their domain...

Heck, you know what I'm talking about. We are the rudest city in the world. And probably proud of it to boot.

That ain't news.

No comments: