I’m not a morning newspaper person, but today’s header> ‘TomTom Traffic Index Special declaring our city Bangalore as with highest traffic congestion, globally…’ <got me gagging!
‘B’luru‘ is (if you’re looking at attached pic), the abbreviation of my renamed city ‘Bengaluru’, the renaming of which made our Traditional Linguists feel better about everyday conversations and other hazards. ‘B’luru‘ though!🙄
About Rush-hour & motor dioxide….are we surprised? No.
The fine print says we could’ve listened to Lennon’s Imagine 4673 times, cooked 7,033 pancakes, baked 11,702 cookies, watched 139 soccer matches & 215 Game of Thrones, completed 49 Jigsaws and planted 244 trees??…all in the 243 extra hours, a regular Commuter might lose just sitting out traffic jams in a year. That’s a loss of ten days annually, check the math, I’m no pundit there.
Still, we were getting used to things the way they were. It made even kidnapping hard to get away with.
Last year in Delhi, I think? A two AM Traffic jam gave Cops pursuing those kidnappers ample time and space to track the vehicle, with Zero advantage to some people trying to escape crime scene. Kidnappee got back home in time for breakfast…😂isn’t that the best??
Too, these days I’m a muchhhh better pillion rider/ car mate within city limits, for all the crawling congestion! Not that much woe about ankles being scraped while on bike, or head on collisions due to Speed, or being raced by auto rickshaw on one side, local bus on the other, …
no one’s going anyplace that fast, not with the ‘jam!
…
So, this works for me in an odd way,
(ACH, you wouldn’t want to drive over 80 with me in tow). Ask my husband- any speedometer kissing 100 mph, and I need Oxygen.
It must be hard to live with my high -inaudible almost- shriek at something coming at us from the opposite direction, or family of sudden goats a bleat away from front wheel….this happens so easy on NH4 past Golden Amoon resort an hour away from here, those breathe easy wide open routes via village and some amount of pasture land, never mind industrial advances.
So, there’s all that. Why make a noise? Felt good to say some things about all the trees we could’ve planted while waiting …
Imagine this :
Bangalore population = 2,327,000
x 244 trees = 3007788000 trees? It is that many trees we could’ve planted while sitting out traffic jam, right? (I google calculated ofcourse..)
Did Tomtom also meanwhile work out all that about Throne games we could’ve watched, and Soccer? I’m no Soccer/ Throne Room enthusiast, but I love my city, it’s traffic lanes crowding with hawkers selling bike mirror & windshield cleaners, key chain, funny faced hand puppets with rolled in red tongues that squawk out at you,
That aside, am wishing for better days on the road,
though, how?
Some of us should shift to villages, some get helipads, more of us share cabs and go buses, go metro. Tough. Someday sometime we shall overcome. Was that daddy Luther or Gandhiji Bapu? It is Mahatma Gandhi’s death anniv today…
….
No, Sir Bapu. We best not lose faith in us all…
our spaces and time crowding with kinds of Hawkers, Traffickers! ‘Thrones…’
and oh this ..
where will Transport go with lesser affordable petrol….who can tell?
In honour of today’s post I’m thinking on planting the Lemon seeds I have+ Orange and Desert Flower from Oman. How will they bless anything? Unsure.
Sometimes you just go do what smiles at the moment.
…..
On a different note,
our girls with an impromptu cover👇… 👸is all the ‘Throne” I have space for….
Innerdialects 
Beautiful singing by your children. Enjoyed your post too. We plant trees every year. Love ya. Joni
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Thankyou Joni, as always I’m behind on the replies. Oh yes, the kids make a joyful noise, bless you. And you plant trees every year, that sounds serious, happily so! I have a Gulmohar sapling to plant, and we run out of space! Wish I could send it to you🌳⚘
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Thank you my sweet friend. That is so kind. By the way I nominated you for the Sunshine Blogger II Award. Love 💕 Joni
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I love this post. You gave me a bit of a chuckle and inspired me at the same time. Humans spend a lot of time in the waiting place. Waiting for traffic, food, dr. Appointments, payday, Monday to start that diet. So much waiting and wasting. Time is precious. Instead of getting caught in the stress of it, let’s use the precious gift to meditate, smile, read a book, sing and observe the world around us to the fullest. Forget burying our heads in technology. Look around. “…a part of everything is here in me.”
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Such a beauty of a comment here, and oh so glad for the chuckle! Yes time is our greatest commodity and is best understood in Stillness. So glad you got that too, Mary Mangee.💞
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I enjoyed your post and then completely forgot what you had written when I listened to your daughters sing. Although Vihan has a beautiful voice when the two sing together both are magnified. I had goosebumps! Absolutely amazing!! They should sing together more often!!!
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Oh yes, they do sing together a lot, though our younger daughter needs more convincing to give music her time. She’s pretty good, yes, perhaps more than she knows. Do check this if you’d like :
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Perspective is everything when we decide what to ignore & what to pay attention to. If you are easily annoyed, choose to ignore those things that don’t really matter & you will have a more peaceful day.
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Barbara Hegreberg, thankyou so much for being here, and wisdom expressed in an age of rude, when being annoyed is the easiest skill😇. Wishing you Peace Love &Light
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Sure, you could have planted 244 trees but you have planted seeds for thought, reflection, healing and peace and that must count for something too. Maybe that is your calling 🙂
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The call for every human for sure🌴🌲🌳🍁🌿🌾🙂
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Sitting in traffic jams is such a waste of time – I like how you created a word image of how the time might be better spent if the traffic jam hadn’t existed.
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Thankyou Sheryl, yes those awful traffic jams! (Oh the word image wasn’t by me, but by Tomtom, Dutch)🌻😃
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Beautiful singing!
To have planted that many trees each year would be world changing.
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Seriously yes! ‘The trees of the field would clap their hands’…🌻🌳🌲🌴🌿🍀🍁
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