The Traffic Enlightenment

It was on an extremely hot sunny day that a miracle happened. As usual, on that day, the JVLR stretch infront of IIT Powai seemed more of a parking space rather than a road. Cars of varying widths and heights, auto-rickshaws which seemed to be creating more of themselves each moment, pedestrians criss-crossing the meagre gaps like ants etc. had crammed out the road. Honking was the dominant sound there but you could get a scent of abuse too if you had the ear or the nose for it. With each passing moment, all of it - cars, auto-rickshaws, pedestrians etc. honking, abuses and finally, the heat and the light - seemed to increase in intensity till it seemed to built-up to a blinding light which lasted for a second (in folklore that has taken root since then, we believe that there was a blinding light for a second but I actually believe that the chaos reigning there knocked our senses out for a second and our mind to hide its embarrassment at not being able to prevent it created this “blinding light” memory).

Any-which-ways, once the blinding light had subsided, we witnessed the miracle. One of the auto-rickshaw seemed ablaze as if on fire. And as worried and disinterested people - in equal measure - looked on, out came the driver from it dressed in blinding white (all visible hairs on his body were also blinding white) which seemed to boiling (it felt like as if vapours were rising from it), thus, creating a perpetual aura around him (refer to Goku after his super-sayan transformation). He then walked over to the traffic signal infront of IIT Powai main gate and sat right below it on the road cross-legged with folded knees. None of the interested onlookers could make sense of what had happened. This irritated them more. Further, the auto-rickshaw left behind exacerbated the already almost dead traffic movement. As such, the mystic driver was made audience to a lot more abuses by them and some pedestrian miscreants taking use of the opportunity hit him too for their fun’s sake. But his whiteness never diminished nor was it tarnished. And he continued to sit in that exact posture with eyes closed impervious to anything outside. This exasperated people first so they tried harder to hurt him but eventually they realized that indeed he had been mysticized and it was best to leave him alone. They then realized that the entire scene was eerily similar to Buddha sitting underneath Bodh Gaya tree. And that’s when they truly started believing him to be a God incarnate. And that day was deemed as his “Enlightenment Day”.

The mystic driver has sat at the same spot for decades now with eyes closed and blazing white. Only now and then speaking a few words of wisdom which have only strengthened the “Enlightenment” belief.

As of today, we have received the following 5 wisdoms from him and they are termed as the tenets of his belief of whose followers, especially among the auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers, are increasing exponentially.

1. 1) Traffic is a microcosm of society where people co-exist peacefully albeit loudly

2. 2) Internet connects all of us virtually while traffic does physically - your next co-founder, lover or even killer might just be in the next vehicle

3. 3) Do not resist traffic for it trains you to accept that not everything is under your control

4. 4) Traffic is like money - it creates more of it and always exist only where the rich including upper middle class) live

5) Do not resist traffic for it trains you to shut out the white noise