The Brownian Motion

I was awed as I walked by, to see autos lining the two sides of the road near my office. There were about two hundred of them, standing nose to nose like yellow hem of some kind of dark bridal gown (awful image, ok, I understand your feeling)- what I mean is, it made me smile. Because most of the autos had a red flag flying on top of it, marked, "CITU".

And each one of them had a poster stuck on its back, which read, among other things, "Don't hit us poor auto-drivers in the belly". Reading those posters, I understood that they were incensed that these auto no longer would be allowed to go through T. Nagar, the commerical hub- of what? Middle class Chennai.

Now, it should be the general public that must protest this, because they are denied access- now they have to get down where the autos drop them and walk on, but no one was making any noise. If there were any, it was a long, audible sigh of relief- because, these autos like to park themselves where the crowd is- you know what fun they get.

It is hard for me to imagine that auto drivers, even the poorest among them, would ever feel any pain from being hit in the belly. They are mostly lazy, gossiping, vicious, abusive, greedy people who feel embarrassed when you, in some lunatic impulse, say, "Thank you".

However that be, I came past T Nagar this evening, and what would have taken me fifteen minutes took me three minutes time: so it is in a sense, a good relief. But I am sure, in a week or two, the autos would be back, mangling the purpose of travel- and revealing that Brownian Motion rules- at least, the streets of Chennai.