A Few Good Men

Inspired by today's Hindu(Page five I guess)

Meet Mr Palpandi. A waiter at Alankar. You wouldn't care to give him a second glance. But he has been serving the city for 25 years and the Police plan to  to honour him. What has he done? Nothing mind blowing. He just happens to wear a khaki uniform and regulate traffic at Nanjappa Road junction whenever he is not on duty. On usual days, you can see him for about three hours in the afternoon and for three more in the evening.His reason:Soul Satisfaction, as he puts it.

This is dad's experience :

About a month ago, there was a traffic jam in Avinashi Road.Just when dad had turned off the engine and resigned himself to a  long wait, he saw the trafffic being cleared. Eager to see who it was who was doing this, he stepped out. A bunch of auto drivers from the nearest Auto stand had taken it upon themselves to clear the mess. Dad was impressed, told them as much and asked them why they were doing it. " Summa irukkara timela ethavathu help panlam la" one of them said.And apparently, this was not the first time they had done this.

This little city has such men of character.

i read a blog today which went on about India's abject caste religious and communal divides.this forces me to write one of my rare textual posts .i just could not disagree more with the tone which most people take saying "where is the hope for our nation if we are so hopelessly divided?"i say even if so called rational and balanced people like you dont have hope ,then who else will??and hoe dare you criticise someone when you have the same hopeless attitude yourself??and this is what i say as an indian who believes in the destiny and future of india.!yeah all these exist no doubt but the very fact that we have been able to survive as a nation shows that we still have a something which rides across all caste barriers, a something which transcends religion ,which overpowers racism and forces us to remain united ...call it the destiny of the nation ,or the collective soul of a billion ,india does exist and stands untied at times of national crisis .when chaos and destruction beckon, we stand up as one with spine straight and head held high....case in point kargil and the recent terror attacks....yes we do have bigotry but that is only on the surface ..unravel the veil and u find a collective united soul of a nation....this may be overtly optimistic but that is the way i see it....[sorry to my friend whose blog i happened to read today]