Light and the lack of it!

I live in Coimbatore, a city in Southern India, and love Coimbatore. A very laid back city with a unique blend of tradition and cultural heritage. Traditional Coimbatorians are very peace loving and respectful of each other; irrespective of their age.

This city made people from all over India and abroad to settle down here for their career or for retirement. Along with this, the city also imported some bad influence; such as road rage, show-off, ego, cultural shock, etc.

There was a time when one could never find out the ordinary looking man of Coimbatore, clad in his white dothi and sporting  a yellow cloth bag, was a millionaire. This down to earth man never had an ego or wanted to show off that he was rich. Slowly, with the influx of this new cultural mix, the new generation wanted to show off, most of the time, their unrealistic pomp.

One small example is the hype for top of the line luxury cars and SUVs. There was even a news that the maximum number of Audi cars sold in India was in Coimbatore! Just imagine how many of the new generation would want to show off their prized possession on the roads of Coimbatore?

Talking about the recently acquired road rage, the situation gets worse come nightfall and the roads become hell joints. What I mean is the street lights which never burn or light up our pathetic roads. Driving in the night is a nightmare! You will never see the pothole or the stray dog, donkey, horse, cattle and of course, the lone inebriated pedestrian trying to find his way home groping in the dark! To avoid hitting on any of the above, the already raged vehicle driver keeps his head lamps always on high beam. He or she is impervious to the blinding caused due to the high beam on the vehicular commuters on the opposite side. So they also put on their high beam. Result more blinding lights and more road rage and cursing under the breath!

If the street lights really worked, there is no need to put the high beam within the city. This is our curse to this once peaceful city – the light and the lack of it.