Distracting Pathways

Hey everyone! It is a known fact that Homo Sapien is the 'brainy' species. We have intricate brains and that enables us to do a variety of processes ranging from calculations to analytics to logic etc. Due to these functions, we are the most populous species living on the planet, and the existence of other life is based on our decisions! One of our salient traits is the perception of emotions & feelings. Having emotions makes us kinda crazy😜! Here is a story I wrote for a school activity, on the flummoxing ways of humanity. It starts off with a bitter & unforeseen accident and concludes with... 

Distracting Pathways

An old man stood peering at the traffic lights as cars and bikes whizzed past him. He stepped forward to cross the road, but his degrading senses prevented him from seeing a blue sedan speed onto the trail, he was about to take.

It was a flash of light before he saw the stars at dawn and fell to his knees. The whole road emptied, and everyone came near him. Everyone was aghast. The Blue Sedan Driver ignored the catastrophe he caused and just continued en route, talking busily on his phone. 

A few grumbles were heard, but all the others sympathized. They threw stones at the car, but it did not change the course. In the frenzy, only one clever woman called the ambulance immediately. The police were also rung.

Everyone tried to wake the old man, who was dizzy but luckily didn’t seem to have any major wounds. Water was given. He tried drinking it but ended up coughing a lot. He groaned and rubbed his forehead copiously. Luckily, the ambulance arrived in no time! The officials lifted and carried him inside, in a stretcher, and then departed. The last glimpse anyone saw was that the old man had a ventilator on, and there were bloodstains on his forehead.

The police were late, but they soon appeared. 

“A Blue Honda City zoomed at the speed of light and brushed across the old man!” said one enthusiastic guy who was seated on a scooter.

The officer penned it down.

“Well, I don’t think it was a Honda City, it was a BMW! Rich people have the attention span of a donkey; all they do is sit in their rich mansions and watch people lose their jobs!” said another, who broke down after stating this.

Perhaps he was fired. The people couldn’t take another dose of sympathy, so they just ignored him.

“Okay, so it was a blue sedan. Did anyone see the license plate?” the policeman questioned.

There was no response.

“I think the numbers were ranging from 7-24. I immediately read his numerology; such a careless person could have opted for only such a car.” A man with a white beard declared. Everyone was on their toes now.

“I am a prolific astrologer” he continued. “I have never gone wrong in a proclamation. In fact, I have so many customers! Here is my business card­­—please reach me out only on the weekends, I am terribly busy you see.” He concluded by handing out yellow index cards which just had a phone number inscribed on them.

Believe it or not, people got distracted by this joke of a guy. They started thanking him for his highly eminent declarations and was even promised of a client, to cleanse the aura of someone’s son. One of the policemen saved his number on his phone! To prove his Vedic powers, the bearded man started chanting several verses. He showered everyone with so-called ‘pure’ water from a Bisleri water bottle, and then asked for good vibes by falling to the feet of all the elders! Then thanking the Lord for this opportunity, he zipped away from the intense situation on his Benz Mercedes. 

A few remained puzzled while others rejoiced as a new path was shown! 

The officer recovered and continued the questioning.

“Does anyone know what the driver looked like? Since we don’t know the license plate number…”

Amidst the crowd, a girl appeared. She looked to be in her teens and carried an austere look on her pixie- cut- face.

“Sir, Namaste: I am Aarya, a second-year Journalism student at Trinity Gardens College.” She paused and took a deep breath.

“What you are doing right now shows the incompetence of the Police force in Bangalore! Every year hundreds of accidents take place and you all just let it pass! Today, we all must have gotten up on the good side of the bed, because your committee actually responded!” her voice got higher.

“You all receive handsome pay, what prevents you from giving Bangaloreans a satisfactory life! Why can’t there be police officers stationed at every cross-section, why can’t there be CCTV cameras which work?  These traffic lights have kept on blinking for ages, green light never appeared. The quality of safety is degrading! I am deeply saddened that you all are so restful and depend on the citizen’s opinions, rather, this can be simplified with the proper technology, which you people can’t even install!!” 

Aarya stopped and drank gallons of water. 

“Madam, are you done with your monologue?” The officer asked sarcastically. A chuckle was heard.

“First of all, we do have cameras—please look up and see. Today there was a power cut from morning hence, we couldn’t access it. This is an inferior region of the city; accidents are rarely reported from this site; thus, we tend to keep officers near more busy parts.” He defended with dry confidence.

Aarya cleared her throat and was about to talk more when she just instructed herself to keep quiet.

“I am done. Thank you for your time.” She left.

“Let’s continue, shall we?” the silence was broken.

“We would like to say something.”

A duo came out of their brightly painted Innova car. They wore shirts that had ‘Innovationz 4 Us’ printed on it. They opened a small box that contained a small structure.

“What we witnessed now, is a heart-breaking thing. A life has been affected by someone’s foolishness! We at Innovationz 4 Us have come up with a stupendous solution! Sensory Alarms!”

The small structure was shown.

“This sensor will be fixed near the headlights of a car. Anytime someone comes near the car, be it a disarmed citizen or even a robber, the sensors will detect it and start beeping ferociously alerting the owner, through a mobile app and the surrounding! Isn’t it marvelous?” No one clapped, but the two of them applauded enough.

“This idea is stupid!” One fat man said.

“It will make you deaf! Every time someone or something comes near the headlight, it will go crazy! Can you imagine the amount of sound it will cause?” one policeman remarked.

“Sir, sir, don’t misjudge! Our idea won Top Invention of 2020! It is exceptionally good!” the duo continued. 

“Oh really?” some other person smirked. 

“I will prove it to you! Shamu get my phone!” The shorter one of the two hopped back in the car and gave the other his phone.

“See! We met Vladimir Putin!” He held out a photoshopped picture of him shaking the hand of the Russian President.

Everyone sighed and shook their heads in disapproval.

The team realized that their practical joke was recognized so they fled instantly.

The police couldn’t believe their eyes! So immature!

They wanted to go on but a few more musings came in between. One woman wept about how the Pandemic has taken her livelihood and she was forced into poverty. Another spoke about his travels to Singapore and how he was mesmerized by their way of life. He spat at the maintenance in India and compared everything here to developed countries. A few political and even religious rivalries were formed! Some talked about the traffic jams in Outer Ring Road while others complained about sanitation. One guy pleaded for more Instagram followers!

Even people who weren’t present at the original scene now started arriving thinking it is some Lok Adalat! More and more problems were thrown, and several ‘parties’ tried to solve them.

Food & Edibles sellers and Knick- Knacks Vendors were now attracted by the number of people, that even they started flourishing their business by selling them at twice the original price! The police’s threats meant nothing to the huge crowds that were now pervasive.

Oh! All the COVID precautions were thrown in the bin! Masks had now become sterile peanut containers to feast on, people overlapped on each other and coughing was completely okay in this mob! The small group of police officers surely regretted responding so quickly to this issue.

One by one, people arose from the crowd and spoke aloud. The others would hustle and try giving solutions by debating. Screams, threats, announcements; all of these were common now.

While one boy was elucidating on his problems at his government job, he was interrupted by a short person with a friendly look.

He wobbled on to the stage (that was now formed for people to stand on it and talk about problems) and held out his phone. 

“Everyone, I just google-lensed the man’s face!” 

“Which man?” a few asked.

“The old man, who was harmed in the accident.”

“Which old man?” the mob became curious. I guess this tells you all about the scene.

The guy opened Google Lens and showed the picture of the old man which he took when he collapsed.

Google Lens showed a poster that had been put on some website. Apparently, the old man was the grandfather of some Business owner and he had been missing for the past week. The prize money for finding him was ASTOUNDING! 

“There wasn’t any internet connection. My mobile data just came back, hence I realized this just now!” He stated.

Mouths opened in awe; a few rubbed their eyes just to check if they had been seeing double of the zeroes.

The group of close to fifty people now surrounded the smart man. They questioned him about the ambulance, how the old man looked, where he was taken, and every other thing they had foreshadowed with their own minuscule worries. The mob couldn’t pass away such a staggering amount. People already started dialing the businessman’s office explaining that they had found the old man. Some vehicles were organized to go to his house and claim the amount. In reality, except for the smart one, everyone had forgotten about how the old man looked and even where they were originally to go, before meeting with the crowd.

With just money as their motive, the crowd started to disperse either moving towards the businessman’s house or the hospital to at least catch a glimpse of the old man or to tell their families that they would be rich!

The crossroad slowly became scarce. Cars left puffing out smoke and scooters cut their ways out. Everyone raced to see who would go first and claim the most amount. The traffic that had now occurred was a thousand times greater than the traffic anywhere else!!! People were blinded by their shiny new goals rather than completing their previous ones.

Oh, you might ponder on what happened to the police? Well, they left at least two hours ago, when the construction of the stage began, and the number of people became uncountable!

The diffused bronze tinge of the dusk-ridden sky was now painted with ebony black haze. On the ‘stage’ the smart one remained, along with a peanut vendor. They both snacked on crispy shelled peanuts and laughed at the complexities of human behavior. A peculiar day indeed! 

Well, that's all. I hope you liked the post!! Did you like this story? What are your thoughts on the behavior of humans? Who was your favorite character? Do you have a blog? 

Tell me in the comments! 😁