60 seconds at the Indian Express Circle

Yeah Bangalore has poor infrastructure & slow moving traffic. But the fact is despite this downside there are some roads in Bangalore where life goes on at a lively pace and is anything but slow.

The Indian Express Circle in Bangalore is a case in point. Poor infrastructure & slow moving traffic is the common complaint of the software guys. To understand the scene at the Indian Express circle forget the software guys & their companies & think government offices & banks. Forget ready-made suits & ties or even jeans & T – Shirts & think stitched pant & shirt, sari & blouse. Forget leather bags or briefcases & think lunch boxes & cloth bags. Forget traveling in AC cars think stuffy public buses.

The Indian Express Circle is a junction of 5 roads. The converging roads are Cunningham road, Infantry Road, Park Road, Queens Road & another road that connects to Vidhana Soudha & whose name I’am unable to figure out. Due to its proximity to the Shivaji Nagar bus stand a lot of buses converge at this circle & either go out into the city or are returning to the bus stand. It is also a hot spot as Infantry Road & Cunningham Road are business centers & thereby there are a lot of people getting off there to go to their work place.

I touch the Indian Express circle through Park Road on the way to work. After the brief stop here I continue on Cunningham Road. So my position is like when I look ahead Cunningham Road is in front of me & Queens Road is to my right. From this spot I witness every single day the on street extravaganza & heroics of ordinary women, cyclists & the bus drivers. And there is never a dull day.

My stop at the Indian Express circle is approximately for 60 seconds. As I shift the gear to Neutral & rest my feet firmly on the ground & relax, what follows for the next 60 seconds will put the who dares wins & fear factors on TV to shame. People get off their bus to my right & cross the road to my left with no consideration for the traffic turning in towards their side. Ladies in their saris & flowers in their hair run across to catch their next bus on the other side of the road and the only direction they look is ahead like it were a 100-meter dash. Girls decked up with talcum powder & wearing high heels walk across in a guarded manner as if they were on the ramp. Some even stop mid way & adjust their sari or dress. Cyclists think that the whole concept of traffic signal is totally non-existent for them and freely ride across the road and the way they manage to do it by evading the crowd of people from one side and the autos & two wheelers on the other side leaves you totally flabbergasted. The cop is very much there but is switched off, his hand raises not to direct the traffic but to salute at an officers car.

The best part of a gondola ride is when you are coming down and though it is not really the same thing here you are sure to get a similar feeling when buses take their turns like they were not on a public road but in one of those formula one races. And magically all the people & other vehicles in front of it move away just in time for the bus to continue its curvy dance. Can you believe it?

Countdown timers above every signal post were introduced to help vehicle owners know just how long it would take for them to move & thus letting them switch off their vehicles confidently for a fair time to save on fuel & cut down on pollution but then they are used for totally different purposes. The quiet that is prevalent at 50…. 49…. 48 seconds gives way to a sudden burst of excitement once people see the countdown reach 10…9…. 8, when they become impatient & start to move not bothered about the still moving traffic from the other side. And unbelievably the traffic in the other side stops not because the signal has turned red at their end but because the traffic in the other direction has already started to move. Now in a democracy when the concept of freedom is taken to various heights how can behavior on the road be left out, so if on one side you find people who start early then on another side you will find people continuing even if it is well past their time. So an auto or a car will invariably continue like it is some joy ride that they are on. The other traffic for sure slows down. Some move on when the vehicles are past them while others hurl abuses & then move. Like it makes any difference.

When the countdown timer in front of me reaches 10…9…. 8 the vehicles behind me start to honk hinting to me to get involved in the entertainment. I keep an eye on the countdown timer 6…. honk… 5…honk…4…what the hell… I move and join the party.

The show continues.