7 months ago
4
No 1 successful India wakes up connected a good greeting hoping to basal successful a queue. And yet, for reasons that 1 mightiness not similar to confess successful public, determination is thing oddly comforting astir that long, winding line. It tests patience and, strangely, makes 1 consciousness similar portion of a larger quality experience.
Queues successful India are not conscionable astir order; they are astir theatre. They are wherever stories unfold, strangers bond, tempers flare, and patience (or the deficiency of it) is revealed. Take, for example, the metro presumption astatine Majestic successful Bengaluru connected a weekday evening. One joins the snaking queue astatine the summons counter, grumbling astatine first, but wrong minutes, finds herself eavesdropping connected an overheated governmental statement by 2 radical ahead.
Have you fathomed it yet that lasting successful a queue is 1 of the uncommon situations wherever 1 is forced to pause. Whether it’s waiting for the darshan (where the queue is practically a pilgrimage successful itself) oregon extracurricular a caller dosa joint, 1 adjusts to the bushed of dilatory guardant motion. It’s astir meditative — except, of course, erstwhile idiosyncratic tries to chopped in. Then the corporate outrage is instant, arsenic if a communal force is found.
But queues assistance to larn a batch astir quality character. The heavy thinker staring into space, the chronic complainer who mutters, “Only successful India this happens!” (though queues beryllium everyplace from London to Tokyo).
Consider the enactment extracurricular a recently opened beverage stall, wherever the hold clip to get your archetypal Instagram-worthy portion is longer than the clip it takes to portion it! Oh yes! Technology, promised to escaped america from queues… “Book online,” they said. But present determination are virtual queues alternatively — waiting endlessly for IRCTC tickets to corroborate oregon watching helplessly arsenic Swiggy blames “heavy request successful your area”.
Sometimes, the old-fashioned queue astatine a section bakery feels little stressful than the spinning integer instrumentality of doom connected smartphones. At slightest successful the carnal line, 1 tin odor the lukewarm puffs baking and cognize one’s crook volition yet come.
Of course, humour is ne'er acold distant successful the large Indian queue. Someone volition invariably effort to “hold a place” for 10 relatives who abruptly look similar a relay team. Someone other volition loudly state that “this authorities should bash thing astir queues”, arsenic if abolishing them were a manifesto promise.
And however tin 1 hide that quiescent brotherhood? — a shared smile, a borrowed pen for filling forms, oregon a corporate groan erstwhile the antagonistic closes for luncheon conscionable arsenic you scope the kiosk.
Perhaps that’s wherefore heavy down, radical don’t wholly hatred lasting successful queues. They punctual america we are not unsocial successful our waiting. In a metropolis that often feels similar it’s moving excessively fast, a queue helps dilatory down, makes 1 laughter astatine absurdities, and reconnects 1 with the elemental information that patience is easier erstwhile shared.
So, the adjacent clip you find yourself astatine Lalbagh’s summons enactment during the angiosperm show, oregon extracurricular a buzzing café successful Koramangala, don’t grumble excessively much. Look around, smile, and bask the theatre of the ordinary. After all, lasting successful a queue is not conscionable astir reaching the counter; it’s astir discovering the humour, humanity, and possibly the hidden ecstasy of the hold itself oregon adjacent the unusual joyousness of realising we are each successful this enactment together!
vivek.gundimi@gmail.com
