It is Q for Queues in India

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It is Q for Queues in India

India is synonymous with queues. These endless lines of people are omnipresent in India. But apart from the agony that a person faces while being in queues, these act as a great force in bringing people of different religions and castes together.

CJ: Shishir Srivastava

Sat, Feb 16, 2008 10:22:01 IST

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Different People and Cast Together :

ASK ANY Junior KG student what Q stands for, and he would retort saying, “Queen”. But colonial rule disappeared from India long back. India has become a single successful country in the global environment. Though it is a part of the commonwealth and is due to host the commonwealth games, the effect of the queen has waned.

And as for the ‘Quilt’, only the North Indians seem to be aware of what it is. Though Mumbai got to taste a chilly winter for the first time in many years, and as for the south, the men are very comfortable in their vests and ‘lungis’ throughout the year and are oblivious about the quilt.

But from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, the one thing that unites India is the ‘Queue’. Every Indian or a tourist visiting India has had to go through this ordeal at some point of time or the other. For the common man, it is an everyday story. Once you wake up in the morning and are off to catch a bus to your college or office, there is a queue waiting for you. When you get into the bus, to buy a ticket, you are again in queue. The same process haunts you on your way back.

While having lunch, to pick up your plate from the canteen, you are still in queue. After sitting and controlling for a couple of hours, you decide to take a leak and again you are in queue. The queue haunts us at every stage during our daily lives, but we have begun to accept it as a part and parcel of our lives.

In the rural areas, the queues have a wider presence. All your daily activities, from bathing to eating to washing to drinking have to pass through a hundred-metre queue. Sometimes, they can be really long and if the weather is not on your side, then it can become really painful to be standing in one. In the summer heat, when the sweat starts trickling from your brow to your face and below, it isn’t a very chirpy feeling.

The turmoil that a person goes through while standing in a queue is unmatched. When you see your life going at a snail’s speed and to know that even after hours of patient waiting, you are still not the first in line, all hell wants to break loose. But sanity prevails amidst all the pushing and shoving, or you may lose the privileged spot that you occupy and may be sent back to square one. Life is a cruel thing for everyone in the queue and the willingness to get over with it is what gives people the strength to stand in it for hours while the discomfort one is facing is rising with the minute.

Though people may not acknowledge it openly, the queues have numerous advantages of their own. Who needs social networking sites in India? The largest physically existing social network is present in our very own country – the queue. It might be a complete stranger that you pick up a conversation with without knowing his religion, caste or economic background. But loquaciousness is a trait in Indians and we just can’t remain mum.

Queues form the backdrop of many a great conversation in our country. Whether it is the bus coming late, the rise of traffic incidents in our country, political parties playing the game of politics or the ouster of a great player from the Indian cricket team – the topics may be far and varied but the argumentative Indian, as Amartya Sen calls him, will definitely have a point of view of his own.

Take care of a few points that may help you out the next time you get stuck in a queue. It is always good to have your wife or mother with you. The pitiful eyes of the bystanders often give their place to you. Whenever facing the prospect of multiple queues around, follow the Murphy’s law, “Whatever queue you join, no matter how short it looks, will always take the longest for you to get served” and thus, it is safer to stay put in one’s queue rather than go around looking for a quicker way to get to your goal.

With technology around, it is very easy to pass time listening to music on your mp3 player or the cell phone, but you are missing some of the heartiest conversations, so please don’t be a snob. Enjoy your stay in the queue as long as it lasts, because once it is over, every person goes his or her way.

Queues are an inherent part of a society and we can’t really run away from them. There are somethings in life that we can’t change and the earlier we realise this, we focus our energies towards more important matters. Queues in India maybe long and tiring, but there is no other option. In this virtual world, there are queues everywhere. Whenever you dial a number to another state, the vociferous female starts talking, “Aap katar mein hai, you are in queue.”

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