Outdoors on Duty

Not one to get caught in dilemmas, the bandh call on Monday had me trapped for once. Though, to be honest, the desire to bunk office had more to de with the perfect breezy monsoon morning than LK Advani coaxing me to stay put at home. And though the HR guys post thoughts for the day' to act as beacons for the frequent 'dharmasanskarts' of corporate life, theirs is a beatific silence on matters like

Bands bunks'.

If I were to tell the HR guys - only by watching television that said 'rail, road, metro stopped by protesters' to - that I am stuck and can't get to work, would they mark me absent? I am rally dying to get to work, I can plead convincingly, but what to de, the autos won't ply, the buses coast and stop and gosh, I am told somewhere there's been some roughing up ……. circumstances are beyond my control, but that doesn't mean it's an off-day. Does HR have a policy on this? That you mark me absent, all right, but it doesn't get deducted from my leave? Alas, HR's iffy, and the laborer must trudge to work, and so I do albeit armed with Plan B and Plan C.

Plan B is we tie up with colleagues; all try our best to get to work, when we can't note when not if - we might s well meet up at the nearest coffee shop, what? Plan C is we make it to work come what may. Diligently do multiple transports, some waiting, and some walking and make it to work, exhausted and smug; to spend the rest of the day just talking about how we managed to get to work.

But, reality has something else in store. The rains held, as did the traffic. There's riot police managing traffic at an east Delhi crossing - so much efficiency has me foxed - and there are several little groups of red-flag-waving lalas and their chintus walking the edges of the road. Traffic's definitely lean for a Monday morning and ITO - the dreaded crossing that daily demonstrated traffic gnarl-snarl- is a breeze at 9 am. There's police all over; there media all over and traffic's moving smooth and easy. Ah bandh dynamics. Both sides are going to grab credit.

"Total bandh all success" and "Didn't let bandh affect life, managed protesters and traffic very well" are patent responses you can expect from either side. Fact is much of Delhi did stay indoors. But I'd hazard that's not so much in solidarity with any silly bandh call, but more because it has been a lovely day after a long time, and traffic is Delhi's worst nightmare. You simply don't want to take a risk as it were.

To that end, the media rally helps bandhs along. We're told traffic's going to be so bad, you'd best skip life. What nobody really spilled was the protesters' inside-plans. If Nehru Place Gurbaon's choked at 9 in the morning, and ITO's blocked at 12 noon, how about letting us know? After all, there's Brinda Karat at ITO - lady's no bandh gala, she's at it full throttle. Bahadurshah Zafir Marg stretches empty behind her, not because bandh's total but because traffic's been stopped for her speech time. Police must know which leader gets which chowk at what time; they've prepared for it. Why not give us the lowdown too. Advertise next to the call for the bandh, don't fall for the bandh.

But we're the innocents. All drained when traffic stops for about an hour we must head for the nearest coffee shop, "tried couldn't make it". Because you know 'mehengais' hits hard. as for that little matter about the leave, we were on duty, you know, at least emotionally, mentally. One with the workplace and all, no dilemma then on clicking on that OD (outdoor duty) button, then is there?