Page 17 - Seniorstoday July 2022 Issue

habit of pushing your way upfront stays. bystanders would dart into the bus pushing
If you were travelling, you had to know
someone to get a railway ticket with a
confirmed seat, similarly on Indian Airlines, a
chance ticket would get confirmed if you had
the right connections. There was a 10-year
wait for a telephone. A 12-year wait for a Bajaj
scooter, four-/five-year wait for a Premier
Padmini (you could sell your car after five
years for the same price you bought it at).
Outsmarting others even if it meant breaking
the queue was considered to be clever.
Queuing in line for the darshan is another
Indian favourite pastime. The Lalbaugcha
Raja queue can have over a few thousand
people waiting. The Tirupati Balaji darshan
queue can extend for 24 hours. The Golden
Temple or the Vaishnodevi Devi Temple
queues are a trail of patience by god unless
you are a VIP and know how to get ahead of
the common people.
In recent times, during the Covid-19
pandemic, when the government opened up
liquor shops, there were visuals of people
standing in queue to collect liquor. That
was probably the only time one saw orderly
queues. On the other hand, there were
hundreds of images on television, social media
of families waiting in queues to cremate/ bury
their loved ones. I hope to God I never have to
see images like those again.
Queuing in small town India can be slightly
different to the larger cities, in, say, Jhansi
or in Jabalpur. An aunt, for instance, would
be allowed to go first because of various
reasons, age being a key factor to help you
fast track a queue, whereas in the cities, any
intruder would have to face a lot of aggression.
In Mumbai, it is not unusual to see people
standing in a queue at a bus stop or at a share-
a-taxi stand. Whereas in Delhi one would see
a group of people standing around a bus stop
and when the required bus arrives a few of the
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #37 | JULY 2022
others on the side. If I were to compare Delhi
and Mumbai, Delhi would win hands down in
pushing, shoving and grabbing.
When demonetisation happened, a lot
of friends and family went out to queue at
the banks taking with them some khaana-
peena. It was almost like a picnic. Waiting
in line to get your Aadhar Card amended,
or getting your driving licence renewed can
take a couple of hours. In the 1970s and 80s,
queuing for cricket matches was an ordeal,
people sat around gossiping, chatting. It was
an outing to spend the day trying to buy a
ticket for the upcoming cricket match. While
this may seem like a massive ordeal to a
typical westerner. it was just a little adventure
for Indians, not to mention that one could get
lathi-charged while waiting in the queue and
that would be a part of the fun.
Courtesy: Twitter
Queuing up at restaurants can extend
from a 15 min to a 30 min wait. In Mumbai’s
Kalbadevi, there is an eating place called
Thakkar’s Bhojnalaya. It serves Gujarati
food and the queue is over thirty minutes.
Surprisingly, the majority of the people
waiting in the queue are Gujaratis. Similarly,
there’s a wait outside Swati and Soam, both
eateries serving Gujarati food. A few years
earlier, I would take my family to an eatery in
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