I always had this question in my mind. What motivates a mob to perform the actions that it performs. What must be the inspiration to so many people to go about destroying public properties. How exactly do such crowd gather and what keeps them motivated all time along.
Political hooliganism - heard of it, read about it, saw on television, but had never experienced it before my trip to Bengaluru recently.
I was on a weekend trip to Bengaluru to meet one close friend. The trip was supposed to be very hectic as i was going to reach on Saturday morning and had my return bus on Sunday evening. But, as it always happens, Murphy's great law always prevails. With great difficulty, i had managed to convince my managers to let me leave a little early from office on Friday. And there i was - eagerly waiting for my bus to come and take me to the adventurous voyage. It was a semi-sleeper bus(don't know why it is supposed to be called that, either one can sleep in a sleeper bus or go sitting on a seater bus, but in a semi-sleeper, one can neither sleep nor sit properly). And as i had expected i couldn't sleep most of the night.
The best thing about the bus journeys that i like is the little breaks on the highway restaurants. Though, i must admit that the quality of those restaurants has certainly gone upwards in the last few years. I usually wander around on the breaks, checking out the girls getting down from other buses (again thanks to Mr. Murphy, girls in other buses are always prettier than mine). I also do the usual observations job, trying to map the behavior of people with their faces. I believe that the behavior that people showcase, especially when they are alone, says a lot about them.
Next morning, i succeeded eventually in my long quest for sleep and from what i remember, i slept at around 5 in the morning. But, it was going to be short lived. At around 7, i woke up to find many people from my bus getting down with curious looks on their faces. I was totally clueless, but too tired to stand up and find out on my own. So i kept half-sleeping on my seat and after a while was relieved to find that the bus had again started. We reached a certain highway spot again and the driver took a lengthy halt of around half an hour over there.
The bus stopped again at around 9 and this time i was fully awake and curious enough to learn what was happening. I found out from my neighbors and other fellow bus travelers that there was some Karnataka bandh announced and so some mob had stopped the bus. I called up my friend to verify that it was correct. And there it all started. The most agonizing wait of my journey. There was a mob of around 30-40 people that had stopped the traffic on the highway. Our bus was 4th in the queue when it had started and finally when we were allowed to go, according to a rough guess, there would have been some 5000-6000 vehicles in the long long queue that had formed. The mob had placed the front truck horizontally on the highway, preventing anyone to cross the laxman rekha that they had formed. They started burning tires and it was clear to us that it was going to be a big tiresome day.
What would one do when one is stuck in midst of a highway in a totally unknown land, where one doesn't even understand the language people residing over there speak? And when there is a big violent mob, which looks as hungry as a wild cat that was only given cabbage to eat for 3 years. Add to that the afternoon heat, exaggerated because of the air-conditioned pleasures that the body has enjoyed inside the semi-sleeper bus. And above all that, you are carrying this sad feeling of not being able to make it on time to meet your friend.
What did i do? Made new friends, talked to strangers, got to know some really good ones, wandered around aimlessly, ate at a small cafeteria cum home and tried to learn the mentality of the mob. One thing i was totally sure, none of the hooligans knew why there doing what they had been asked to do. But the power that they were able to showcase was unparalleled. To completely bring to a halt a crowd of about 1 lakh or more with no apparent reason known to them is something i had never seen before. They were burning tires endlessly and for continuously 6 hours, they didn't rest or oblige under pressure and didn't let go any brave-hearts who occasionally tried to break the check-post they had made. Hats off to their courage, dedication and above all, their power - even though it was used for a destructive purpose.
Finally, after some alleged meeting somewhere else and on a phone call from someone somewhere, the mob let us go at around 3.30 pm in the afternoon. I could finally reach Bangalore at 6 pm. And despite another setback of the local transport buses not functioning in the city due to the same bandh, i could not afford to waste any more time and reached my final destination by 7 pm. But, overall it was a good experience and a firsthand classroom to understand the mob mentality.
I was on a weekend trip to Bengaluru to meet one close friend. The trip was supposed to be very hectic as i was going to reach on Saturday morning and had my return bus on Sunday evening. But, as it always happens, Murphy's great law always prevails. With great difficulty, i had managed to convince my managers to let me leave a little early from office on Friday. And there i was - eagerly waiting for my bus to come and take me to the adventurous voyage. It was a semi-sleeper bus(don't know why it is supposed to be called that, either one can sleep in a sleeper bus or go sitting on a seater bus, but in a semi-sleeper, one can neither sleep nor sit properly). And as i had expected i couldn't sleep most of the night.
The best thing about the bus journeys that i like is the little breaks on the highway restaurants. Though, i must admit that the quality of those restaurants has certainly gone upwards in the last few years. I usually wander around on the breaks, checking out the girls getting down from other buses (again thanks to Mr. Murphy, girls in other buses are always prettier than mine). I also do the usual observations job, trying to map the behavior of people with their faces. I believe that the behavior that people showcase, especially when they are alone, says a lot about them.
Next morning, i succeeded eventually in my long quest for sleep and from what i remember, i slept at around 5 in the morning. But, it was going to be short lived. At around 7, i woke up to find many people from my bus getting down with curious looks on their faces. I was totally clueless, but too tired to stand up and find out on my own. So i kept half-sleeping on my seat and after a while was relieved to find that the bus had again started. We reached a certain highway spot again and the driver took a lengthy halt of around half an hour over there.
The bus stopped again at around 9 and this time i was fully awake and curious enough to learn what was happening. I found out from my neighbors and other fellow bus travelers that there was some Karnataka bandh announced and so some mob had stopped the bus. I called up my friend to verify that it was correct. And there it all started. The most agonizing wait of my journey. There was a mob of around 30-40 people that had stopped the traffic on the highway. Our bus was 4th in the queue when it had started and finally when we were allowed to go, according to a rough guess, there would have been some 5000-6000 vehicles in the long long queue that had formed. The mob had placed the front truck horizontally on the highway, preventing anyone to cross the laxman rekha that they had formed. They started burning tires and it was clear to us that it was going to be a big tiresome day.
What would one do when one is stuck in midst of a highway in a totally unknown land, where one doesn't even understand the language people residing over there speak? And when there is a big violent mob, which looks as hungry as a wild cat that was only given cabbage to eat for 3 years. Add to that the afternoon heat, exaggerated because of the air-conditioned pleasures that the body has enjoyed inside the semi-sleeper bus. And above all that, you are carrying this sad feeling of not being able to make it on time to meet your friend.
What did i do? Made new friends, talked to strangers, got to know some really good ones, wandered around aimlessly, ate at a small cafeteria cum home and tried to learn the mentality of the mob. One thing i was totally sure, none of the hooligans knew why there doing what they had been asked to do. But the power that they were able to showcase was unparalleled. To completely bring to a halt a crowd of about 1 lakh or more with no apparent reason known to them is something i had never seen before. They were burning tires endlessly and for continuously 6 hours, they didn't rest or oblige under pressure and didn't let go any brave-hearts who occasionally tried to break the check-post they had made. Hats off to their courage, dedication and above all, their power - even though it was used for a destructive purpose.
Finally, after some alleged meeting somewhere else and on a phone call from someone somewhere, the mob let us go at around 3.30 pm in the afternoon. I could finally reach Bangalore at 6 pm. And despite another setback of the local transport buses not functioning in the city due to the same bandh, i could not afford to waste any more time and reached my final destination by 7 pm. But, overall it was a good experience and a firsthand classroom to understand the mob mentality.
1 comment:
Murphy's Law - you are dying to meet someone but every weekend has a task to be done already assigned !!!!
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