The tale of two traffic signals

After telling my wife that I would not be at home for lunch, I got into the car and started driving. Not many vehicles were on the road as it was a weekend.

My friend had come from the US and he had invited me to his house for lunch. I knew that along with me many of our common friends would also be there.

After five minutes of driving I came across a traffic signal. Noticed that the red light was on, stopped and waited for the green light to glow. I heard honking of horn from the back. Turning back found that a taxi driver was irritated. He rudely gestured at me to go ahead. I was amused. Lowering the window glasses, I said “ Please have some patience and wait until green light starts”.

The taxi driver shouted back “Are you not finding the road empty? Why are you stopping? Go ahead and do not waste my time”.

I replied “This is not correct. Whether the road is empty or full, we should follow traffic rules and wait for our turn until the light turns green”.

Within few seconds the light turned green and I started. The taxi driver raced ahead of me and suddenly  halted his car in front of mine. I stopped. He got down and came near my window and said “From which country have you come? Is it America, Australia or Europe?”

I was amused and I replied “I am from India and I stay in this city”

He laughed and said “It is because of people like you that our traffic is bad. There is no need to stop at a signal if the road is empty. The duty of the light is to show red and your duty is to keep going. ”

I had no answer for his statement. I kept quiet. Cursing me that guy got into his car and drove away.

I continued driving and maintained a steady speed of 60 kilometers per hour. Suddenly I saw a young lady running across the road. I applied brakes immediately. She was taken aback and ran back. I thanked my stars as I did not hit her. I lowered the window glasses and asked her to cross the road. She refused and said “you go ahead and after you pass, I shall cross”.

I replied “Madam I have already stopped the car. Please cross the road now”.

She continued “I am unable to judge the way vehicles move on the road. Whenever I am crossing the road, I find people increase the speed of their vehicles. It appears as if they are racing with me. You stopping the vehicle has come as a surprise to me.”

I smiled and said “Young lady please cross the road. I shall wait and then move”. She thanked me and crossed.

Few minutes later I came across the busiest traffic junction in the city. To my surprise I found total chaos out there. No one was minding the traffic signal. I looked around and found that there was no traffic policeman. Maybe it was his weekly off. All the vehicles were competing with one another to cross the junction. No one was willing to give it. There was a self created traffic jam.

I had no other option but to wait for better sense to prevail. I realized that democracy was at its best form there. No restrictions were around and people were going in any direction they wanted to. It was full freedom at its best.

After about ten minutes I could squeeze my car though the jam. I was relieved when I reached my friend’s house. I got down from the car and entered his house wishing him.

Few of my other friends were already sitting there. I narrated them the experiences I had between the two traffic signals.

My friend from the US said “You are a very tough driver. You are able to negotiate such touch driving conditions. You can drive very well in any city in the world”

I corrected him by saying “You are wrong my dear friend. In fact driving amongst people with such driving sense makes me unfit to drive in any other city where basic rules of traffic are followed”.

My friend laughed and said “Make this experience a part of your Narrations”.

I looked around and saw the book “Tale of two cities” by Charles Dickens on the table.

I replied “It would be a good experience to write and I shall call it the tale of two traffic signals”

Service tax on free advice

“If China is the factory of the world, India is the back office” Raman said.

“I fully agree with you. One full generation of our country has reaped the fruits of IT and IT related sectors” I replied.

We were sitting in the restaurant and having our Sunday breakfast. Though  staying in the same city, we seldom met. Sanjay, David and Ranjan were the other few who had accepted my invitation and joined the breakfast get together. The discussions went on for another half an hour. I looked around and smiled at the steward. He came to our table and said politely “Yes sir”

“Shall we have the check please” I said.

Sanjay was sitting next to me and he wrote on the tissue “Cheque or check?”

I smiled and said “Both are OK. In USA it is check and in other places it is cheque”
He laughed and said " In Russia will it be Checkov?" 

The steward brought the check. A small fight started. It was about paying the bill. Everyone wanted to pay. Finally it was decided to go Dutch. I smiled and said “During our engineering study days we used to fight over bills and of course it was to avoid paying.”

David said “It is strange and typical of Indians and south Asians. In Europe I do not see guys fight the way we do to pay the bills”.

Sanjay saw the bill and said “Look at the taxes. The VAT, Service tax and luxury tax add up to 25 %”

David replied “Good to note this. The government coffers will get filled up”

Ranjan started off “What is so good about it? Of late we are made to pay tax on everything.

The government makes lot of money collecting service tax. They have spread their tax net to almost all the services that are rendered.Taxes on many essential services are draining us”

I looked at Ranjan and said “This is bound to happen as the society advances and gets matured. The government needs money to run the show”.

I looked around and all of them nodded.

 I continued “There is something which is very rampant in India and not yet under the service tax net”

“Which service is that?” Raman questioned .

I replied “It is free advice. Have you not noticed that people are ready to give us free advice?

 If your son is having temperature, your neighbor advices not to take him to your regular pediatrician telling you that the doctor gives antibiotics.

Your friend and his wife will advice you against the school your kid is studying in, saying that the pupil-teacher ratio is high there and not many paid hobbies are available for the kid’s overall growth.

If you think of investing in the equity market and seek advice, you are doomed. You look for one, you get hundreds of them. Every investor becomes an expert and guides you to choose the mix of small cap, mid cap and large cap funds. In fact I lost considerable amount of money during the previous market crash as I heeded to the advice of my friends.

The list would be very long if I go on telling you guys about free advice given.”

Raman said “I agree with you as most of us have been targets of free advice at least once. What is the solution for this?”

I continued “There is no concrete solution for this as it is in our blood to give advice to others.

I feel the government can make huge money and help many of its citizens if they start levying service tax on free advice. They should not make the recipient  pay the tax but should charge the source. In such a case not many would come forward to give free advice as it would be costing them”

All of us laughed and started walking towards the parking area to get into our cars.

Speaking out, why I started writing Blogs?

I crossed the old airport flyover and looked at the dashboard of the car. The time was 11.30 AM.I was satisfied that I would reach my friend’s office about 15 minutes before the scheduled time. We had planned to meet in his office by 12.30 noon.

I was sitting in the very impressive library he had built in his office. 12.30 noon was 15 minutes away. The library had interesting books about travel and places to visit all around the world. I looked around and what impressed me was the book “Soviet architecture”. It was huge. I took it out from the rack, sat on the chair and started admiring the huge buildings in the erstwhile USSR. Tea was served and I became busy reading the stories behind the impressive buildings in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Volgograd, Vladivostok and many other cities.

“Hi Mr. Lenin” my friend said and continued “I knew that you would choose this book. Could you not find a book about happening places? The one on Dubai is very good. Come we shall go to my office room”.

I walked along with him and sat on the chair.

“So what brings you here today?” he asked.

I wanted to go straight to the point. I said “You know very well that I intend to write a book”

“I am hearing this for the past six years”

“This time I am serious”

“OK, is it about Soviet stories?”

“No” I said and continued “Mid life crisis”

He paused and said “I remember you had told me earlier about the plot you want to write”

“I have come here today seeking your advice”

“You want to take up writing seriously?”

“Yes” I told.

“What about your business? You want to pursue writing as a career? It is very crowded out there man. I do not think you can make much money out of it” he said.

“My business is stable and am doing fine in that. I do not intend to change my line of work. I am passionate about writing and not looking at making money from it. This has been at the back of my mind always” I said.

“You want me to help you in publishing the book?”

“In fact I have not given a thought yet about publishing. I want to start and complete it first” I said.

He looked puzzled. He questioned “You are not disturbing your stable business. You do not want any help like publishing the book. Then what has brought you here today? You go ahead and write the book. The world is your canvass. Who is stopping you?”

I felt that I was sounding silly and was not able to convey the message properly to him. Green tea was served. I added sugar to it. My friend commented “you should have Green tea without sugar. You are adding calories to it. You need to cut down such things and become fitter”

I got an alert on my mobile. I looked at it. It was a whats App message from Mahesh Pai. I loved it as it suited the situation. I forwarded it to my friend. He smiled after he received it and said “So near and yet so far and there is a message from you on Whats App”.

He opened the message and read it out “Our body is very wisely designed. We can neither pat our back not kick our own ass. Friends are needed”

He smiled and looked at me. He said “Now I understand why you wanted to meet me. You want to hear some encouraging words from me”.

I nodded.

He continued “Why only pat my friend, you have my hand on your shoulder always”

I replied “I plan to start writing my book from today”.

“How many pages are you planning?”

“About 250 pages”

“Good to hear. What if after you complete 250 pages no one finds it interesting?” he said.

I replied “I did never think of it. What shall I do now?”

He continued “You start blogging. Start writing blogs and share with your friends. Get their feedback and keep improving your writing”

I felt very thrilled at his suggestion. He explained to me about blogger and word press.

I said “today is sixth of November 2014. I shall try to publish my first blog in a week’s time. Thank you for everything”

He replied “I have done nothing”

“Your words have a strong impact on me and am sure that I will come out with good blogs”

On November 14^th I took my son to a competition about English spellings. I keenly observed the people out there and the events that unfolded. Thus my first post in the blog “Narrations” evolved. I published the post about Children competitions on 15^th of November.

Publishing a new post every Saturday became a habit. Slowly but steadily the audience swelled in numbers and I got good encouragement from friends.

After about fifteen more blogs, I started writing about the love story and the mid life crisis of Susan and Pramod.

My friend called me and asked “Are you Pramod of your stories?”

I laughed and said “No man I am not. In fact the characters are very close to my heart and the book I plan to write would be about them”

He said “My dear friend do not delay further. I am very impressed by your style of writing and I like the pictures you choose. They have a sense of nostalgia about them.”

I said “Thank you man. In fact I am starting my book in a week’s time and I have the plot to fill about 250 pages ready in my mind. I shall slow down on my blogs and instead of releasing them every Saturday, will publish them fortnightly.”

He sounded very impressed when he told me “Go ahead my friend.Do not give up writing blogs. The connect will be always with your audience and the feedback will help you in improving each and every time The sky is the limit for you and I wish you all the very best Mr. Bestseller".

I added “If you have built castles in the air your work need not be lost, put the foundation under them. I am laying the foundation now”