Sundays ... Yeh Kaisa Kulture hai?

Mrs. Joseph is a close and dear neighbor of mine. We live in the same lane, greet each other often and also share a few likes - strong coffee, upright people, chocolate cakes (of them I get a liberal share at Christmas!) and cleanliness. Though her family moved in almost ten years ago, and I always greeted her whenever I met her, I really got to know her around this Dussehra -Diwali only.

I was back from my Sunday biking trip around 5 in the evening. And I found Mrs. Joseph surrounded by a few other neighbors from our lane. As I went near to enquire, the first words that entered my ears were those of Mrs. Joseph, “Yeh kaisa Kulture hai?”

The monsoon had just ended and festivals were coming near. And so, the perfectly fine roads of our lane were getting ‘made’ again, courtesy the local administration. All went fine, and the road ‘miraculously’ was ready in just 2 days. It seemed like the agency, the contractor and the department had landed from another planet, knows for its punctuality. We were all very impressed, including Mrs. Joseph.

That Sunday was exactly a fortnight after the road had been ‘made’. And I found Mrs. Joseph pointing to everybody the young, little, light green plants that had grown from under the newly ‘made’ road in just 15 days. Those plants were real tough, having sprouted out of a thick layer of dense tar and gravel. Or was it thick enough?

Mrs. Joseph was asking,
“Yeh kaisa culture hai? Pehle achhi - khaasi road ko dubara bana do! Phir banao bhi aisa, ki 15 din mein paudhe ug aaye!”

We all nodded in agreement. This led to our meeting the local ward member to protest. Which led to him calling the Engineer in charge in front of us. Which led to a series of promises, that were never kept. Which finally led to everybody living on and forgetting the issue. Except, of course Mrs. Joseph.

Then, there was another time, quite recently that I found myself listening to Mrs. Joseph in rapt attention. Soon after the road was made, entered another set of guys, very hard-working and committed; committed enough to ‘make’ new drains in the lane that was newly ‘made’. Ofcourse, Mrs. Joseph was furious. Out she came, and summoned the contractor, “Yeh kya hai bhai, abhi to road bani hai, pehle naali kyon nahi banayi! Yeh kaisa culture hai tum logo ke kaam karne ka?”

This led to the neighbors getting together once again. The ward member came, inspected the work and listened to us - Mrs. Joseph actually, smiled and said “ye to saare shehar mein ban rahi hain”. The moment he said he realised he shouldn’t have. Mrs. Joseph retorted instantly, “yeh kaisa culture hai pata nahi aap logon ka, pehle achhi road ko dubara bana diya, ab theek - thak naaliyan tudwa ke dubara bana dee. Bas logo ka paisa barbaad ho raha hai. Kya isliye ham tax dete hain?”

I am sure he had no answer to that. Neither do I. Do you?

After all, “Ye shehar kiska hai?’

Him Ahuja is an avid traveler and runs a travel blog named http://allhimalaya.com