I dislike loud sounds, except for the time I occasionally
spend at a pub. That’s fine because I know what I am getting into…there would
be loud music, girls and boys dancing, screaming, middle aged men and women
pretending that age never caught up with them etc. I chose to be there where
loud music is playing and I can walk out any time I feel like.
Unfortunately we live in a country where we are bombarded
with all kinds of sounds always, everywhere. We are a people who don’t consider
sound as pollution. Any city or town you go, you find, loudspeaker that blares
out unpopular music (according to my taste) from a temple/church during festive
seasons, or big speakers at someone’s wedding, political rallies where the person
waxes eloquently on how the party is godsend and is going to change the face of
this nation.
I hate all of these. I hate from my very guts, guys who honk
for no apparent reason while driving. Every city in our country is infested
with these senseless idiots! This is one area where the whole nation is united.
I’m sick to death of these people. I absolutely despise
them. I cannot come up with a good word for the feeling I have… I curse them;
sometimes abuse them, using the foulest cuss words in all the languages I know.
BTW, I know cuss words in languages in which I cannot converse! And I am left seething
with anger even after that.
Anyway … I am sure a lot of you will share my feelings. But
there is precious little we can do to bring a stop to it. I, in my own way,
will continue fighting this menace. I would suggest you do that too.
I am yet to find out why people use their horn so much. While
the signal turns from red to green, the dude behind you responds with a honk,
even before he probably shifts his gear or starts his engine (in case he
switched it off). Hello! I am not sleeping! And I am not blind! I know that I have
to move.
Well, if everyone else is moving and I don’t, honking away
to glory doesn’t help, it simply means there is something wrong with my car, it
won’t start. I don’t know what the guy behind me thinks…am I getting some sort
of pleasure by not moving?
Every other city in the country observes a ‘no honking’ day (wonder
if there is a ‘happy no honking day’ card!). Film stars, musicians, politicians,
anybody who is somebody take part in campaign against the menace. But people’s
love for their horn hasn’t come down one bit. They love their horn…they are
‘horn’y people!
If you ask me which city is the worst, I really can’t pick
one. The competition is so stiff. I moved to Kochi recently. A city which is
described a quaint and serene and green, and what not. It takes roughly an
hour’s bus ride to office. So on a working day, I spend two hours suffering a
high-octane cacophony in different tones, apart from the dust and the heat.
By
Sooraj Singh
CreatiVentures Publishing
