On my way to new office (I was busy shifting office today) I stopped on my way to deposit a cheque in my ICICI Bank Branch in Janakpuri. The community center in Janakpuri is always jam-packed and like most places in Delhi, the parking place leaves a lot to be desired. The parking place in community is one of the most disorganized in Delhi; there is no parking fee so there is obviously no one to ensure that every car is parked without causing inconvenience to other car owners.
When I entered the parking place in my car, I had my office assistant with me, and I asked him to stay inside the car, so that he could call me in case someone wants to move the cars that I had blocked. I believe it is basic sense of social responsibility to ensure that you are not blocking some one else’s way. All said and done, I went into the bank, deposited the cheque in a jiffy and came back only to discover that a red Wagon R was parked a few yards behind my car and that it had blocked around 15 cars. That was absolutely stupid, and the person who had parked must have been totally out of his (her, as I later came to know) sense. On the red WagonR, a sticker of Aaj Tak was glued on the front mirror. I was totally infuriated and so were two more people who wanted to take their car out.
Same thing happened with me at the same place around a week back too but at that time, I noticed the car owner’s visiting card inside the car, and dialed his number, to call him and move his car. I tried to repeat the act today but could not find a single visiting card or the owner’s number. Ten minutes passed by and nobody came, and it was very frustrating. Everyone, including me, was getting late and it was maddening to wait like that. We tried moving the car but the hand brake was up. There was no other way of taking our cars out. An idea struck – I recalled how cars are towed; their front wheels are in the air and the two wheels in the rear are always moving. So, four of us picked up the car from the front and with great effort pushed the car back. That created gap enuf for cars to just sneak out…just. I tried taking out my car first, and maneuvered at many angles to get out, and after 7-8 attempts finally managed to move out.
Just as I managed to take my car out, the owner of Red WagonR appeared. She seemed to be well-educated, accompanied by a well-built man in late twenties. I was just so frustrated that I got out of the car and screamed at the woman, rightly accusing her of having no sense of parking, and her ridiculous response was, “I had gone to the bank.” Well, so had all of us, but could not she see that she was blocking many cars in front of her. I somehow can’t tolerate people who try to defend themselves wrongly, and I was quite intent on hurling some verbal volleys at her. In defense, she asked me not to shout, and my reply, “What do you expect? I have been getting frustrated for past thirty minutes and you expect me to be polite.” When a few more people echoed the same opinion, she grew weak, and moved inside her car and reversed at a pace that we could have gone off to sleep.
I won’t mind admitting had the car owner not turned up for another ten minutes, and I wouldn’t have found space, I would have called the police and broken the door glass to pull-up the hand brakes.
Well, on the hindsight, I feel that it was natural to lose temper at such an act of ignorance. With parking problems increasing day by day, every citizen must realize his duty of parking his vehicle at the right space and area. It was especially sad to see an Aaj Tak employee act so irresponsibly, especially since the TV channel highlights problems of society. That was a poor branding of the TV channel, and poor advertisement of parking basics.
.