The Pedestrian Is The Aam Aadmi

Today, the headlines are marking the passing away of a great soldier, Field Marshal "Sam" Manekshaw, hero of the Bangladesh war.

Today, the front page of The Times of India also mentions that 90 per cent of pedestrians in Delhi “feel unsafe while crossing the road.”

Interestingly, when I searched the ToI website for this story (unsuccessfully), I stumbled across a host of such stories from other Indian cities.

Here is one from Vadodara.

Here is one from Bangalore.

Hey!

We’re dying on the unsafe streets!

We don’t need no “war heroes.”

The pedestrian is the aam aadmi.

He must be SAFE.

Don’t protect him from Musharraf – who has his own problems anyway.

Don’t protect him from the Chinese.

Protect him while he crosses a piece of “common property” called the pot-holed road – which belongs to The State.

You own the roads, Manmohan, you look after the aam aadmi pedestrian.

Therefore review the “security policy.”

See where the “insecurity” lies – on the pot-holed apology of a road the government owns as a monopolist.

This “road” is your property and the pedestrian is the aam aadmi you wail about so much.

Your time starts Right Now.

And why don’t we have a national movement to drive slow?

What’s the huge fucking rush anyway?

Pehle aap to the aam aadmi when he is crossing the road would be excellent road manners.

Maybe, this way we will “protect” the aam aadmi on our own.

We Won’t Need Manmohan - and no soldiers too.