The 'U' Turn

Globe trotters, the van reads from behind. Petit pupils in single bright colored attires sit beside each other compactly. A pair is into game with no rules, no equipments, and just four hands clapping each other repeatedly. Chattering and laughing follows unceasingly. I look at the school van from my office cab.

                                 The transformation in time is clearly visible, the difference being that I sit in a vehicle where even the engine feels guilty of roaring out too loud. People look out of their windows contemplating over the possibilities and the impossible of their made up life. Some carry expressionless faces while others have their eyes closed shut under the weights of their inadequate sleeps.

The van and the cab each have their own destinations. One is jingling with joy and the other just trying hard to reach where it is supposed to. Passing across the traffic signals seems like counting the minutes of delay to reach the place of work. The cab zooms across the minutest space available to drop its passengers on right time. Meanwhile the van cheers up, as the road swells. Seems none of the little travelers get bothered by that.

As the end of the day, what workers get is money while globe trotters gain knowledge, and something else which they don’t realize but former do.   You always tend to notice more of what you don’t have rather than what you have got.

The traffic is at its peak in the morning hours. There is a mini race at the U-turn between the traffic coming and the one cutting a U. Horns blare all over the road. People click their tongues and make sounds of frustrations creeping in their heads as the time runs ahead of their pace. Everyone wants to rush forth together where the space is only for few. Vehicles vibrate with power, the sleek ones making their way out somehow.

Here the road diverges, the van takes a soft turn while the cab rushes ahead reaching 60 in one go, horns following its every move.

It is sad and happy both that the little pupils don’t know what they are heading towards, only the time does and now even I do.