I still remember that monday morning back in July 2000 when I woke up early and went to the bus stop to go to college. Everything was as usual. I had had joined Pre University College which was around 15 km from my house just after my 10th and I was new to daily bus commutes. After a tiring commute for almost 1.5 hours (changing 3 buses), I reached college only to find that it was closed because news had just come in that the Kannada legend Dr Rajkumar was kidnapped and college would remain closed until further notice because the college principal did not want to risk any protests inside the campus. For a moment, I was happy because it was an indefinite holiday!! Happily hopping my way back to the bus stop, I was in for a rude shock when I found that there was a sea of humans. Fearing riots, colleges/schools (and several offices) were closed and students asked to go home, due to which there was heavy rush. Shopkeepers had also closed shops and were heading home. The city was under panic because everybody wanted to go back home quickly. Students like me could not even think of hiring an auto because they were quoting sky high prices while all that I had was a student bus pass and just 20-30 rupees in pocket. Most of the govt BMTC (public transport) buses were withdrawn and the remaining buses which were plying did not have even a millimeter of space due to crowd. I somehow managed to board a govt bus (which had a little bit of space on the footboard) but unfortunately that bus was stopped after few mins by miscreants who surrounded the bus and after asking us to vacate it, they broke all the glasses of the bus and almost destroyed the vehicle. We had all dispersed and run for cover in different directions. After running for a few mins in some random direction, I look around and find that I am all alone, stranded in a totally unknown place, with no human in sight (because everyone had feared riots nobody was in sight). Since I knew that I had to go in a certain direction, I kept running, panting, fearing my life (In hindsight, it looks a little funny now because it was just a panic in the city and not a riot. So, there was no need to fear but I was very young and did not know what was happening & why it was happening. I was shocked after seeing those miscreants destroying the bus and thought they would come after me) For almost 3 hours I was walking, running, gasping, sweating profusely. I wanted some water to drink but shops were closed and I could not afford to stop anywhere even for a few seconds. My legs were hurting but my heart was beating loud which pushed me further (due to fear). I finally reached my locality at around 1 PM and it felt like I have reached heaven!! By 1.15 PM, I reached home & hugged my mother. Later when I explained her all these events, she was startled because she did not know that there was such a panic in the city because those days there were no Breaking News. Some neighbor had told her that a film actor was kidnapped but she did not know the gravity of the situation. When my father returned from office at 6 PM (his office was at a walkable distance), he was also surprised because after going to his office at 8 AM, he or any of his colleagues had no idea what had happened in the city. (There were no facebook/twitter/news-sites those days). During lunch time, somebody had told him that a film actor was kidnapped and few schools were closed as a precautionary measure. Such things were usual those days. Whenever schools felt that there would be some disturbances due to Kannada-Tamil conflicts or Hindu-Muslim conflicts, they would announce holidays as precautionary measure. If there were mobile phones in 2000 and as a student, if I had one, the experience would have been totally different. Maybe my parents would have told me to remain in college till the panic was sorted out. Or maybe when I was stranded in an unknown place, they would have arranged for some transport or personally come and picked me up. Or maybe I would have coordinated with my friends at the college bus stop itself and walked to a friends house close to the college. Atleast the experience would not have been so gruesome. 3 years later, when cellphones started penetrating into India at a wide scale which could be affordable even by lower middle class (Thanks to Dhirubhai Ambanis vision of making a phone call cheaper than a postcard), I realized how much useful it would be for students. That is why I will never demand for banning of cellphones. It is one of the best inventions ever by mankind.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 18:52:36 +0000