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Discussion in 'Snippets of Life (Non-Fiction)' started by Thyagarajan, May 27, 2022.

  1. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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  2. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    The video above was of youngster Male and females moving in long queue toward Taj palace hotel at New Delhi for spot interview for the post of becoming a part of cabin crew for Air-India on 24 th May 2022.

    In India, I have seen at bus stops people follow queue in a disciplined manner at every bus stop in Mumbai. The buses invariably halt at or close to ear-marked bus stand or stop.

    In Chennai, it is “might is right” for boarding the public transport.
    Strangely, I had seen people would stand one behind the other in an orderly manner but the moment their route bus arrives, the queue disappears and every one will try to rush into the bus blocking passage making it difficult for those alighting .

    With online booking of tickets, queues are slowly disappearing in many places.

    Amitabh Bachchan’s famous dialogue comes to mind where he proclaims in his baritone that wherever he stands there the queue would start.
    • Hum jahan khade ho jate hai, line wahi se shuru ho jaati hai... (... the line starts from where I stand...)” is a famous line of dialogue from the 1981 Hindi movie Kaalia .
    When a man joined behind me, I told him two persons just left asking me to protect their position and they would return after a while. When my turn came, I finished my transaction and looked behind a huge queue - it’s tail disappeared from my view. The man just behind was tendering cash in the counter but the two promised that they would come later had just arrived. Others objected to their claim of having been in queue .

    In long queues, it is seen some indulge in politics and argue out at top of his or her lungs resulting in altercation. Some would be reading news paper or novel. Some seen borrowing reading material from others. Some do general gossip invariably leading to chaos or skirmishes or technology transfer! Some smart fellows will sell their spot in queue for a price.

    IN THE PAST Queues begin overnight in front of US consulates for visa interviews IN METROS. Now it is all well organised.

    In banks too there is no queues at teller counters.
    Most orderly ever-moving queues, I have seen around temples where Prasad distributed!

    Ants demonstrates better discipline and moving queue and none would try to overtake the other. But they do kiss ants coming from other direction but one by one!
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2022
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  3. Balajee

    Balajee IL Hall of Fame

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    My sympathies with queue breakers. If there is a a hellish punishment for anyone it is standing in queue. At a bus stop or metro station you will find people standing in queue in an orderly manner but that is only until the vehicle arrives, then all hell breaks lose.
     
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  4. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    I agree with your statement .

    I had a harrowing experience .

    With my monthly salary in cash in Ecolac brief, I was pushed down by those waiting for the bus. I swooned on the spot and when I regained my consciousness, I found I was on a rickety wooden bench in a make-shift tea-shop where sonme one was administering home remedy to my swelled knee.

    It was on last working day in Aug 1979. Four eunuchs took care of me and brought me home in yellow cab and lifted physically to flat at fourth floor .

    They had picked up carefully what had strewn around at the accident spot from my office brief including salary envelope. Astounded that I got it intact with salary. Not only that they declined my offer of certain cash but came next day and day after to enquire my well being.

    Thanks for your response that made me nostalgic.
     
    Last edited: May 27, 2022
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  5. Viswamitra

    Viswamitra IL Hall of Fame

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    Dear Thyagarajan Sir,

    Even though as citizens of the USA, we are not proud of mass shootings, one thing that we can be proud of is adherence to the discipline while standing in line (equivalent of Queue in the USA)! Even when 911 attack took place, those who were getting evacuated followed discipline and allowed ladies, sick, differently abled persons to be evacuated first before they were evacuated. Even some paid hefty price of losing their lives because of this discipline. Even when I wait in the cash counter to check out things, people recognize who came first and give way for him/her. We see discipline while driving through a road crossing with stop sign where the drivers allow the first in the line to crossover.
     
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  6. jayasala42

    jayasala42 IL Hall of Fame

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    I am reminded of my snippet on 'Waiters for ever' written last year.
    Copy placed below.


    It was aug 2017.We were happy beyond measure not because it was Avani Avittam day, but because we received 6000 litres of water through tanker after anxiously waiting for a long period of 25 days.Remember it was just 18 months after Chennai Floods in 2015.
    Yes, it is Madras.Jan -Oct we have water scarcity and in
    Nov -Dec,water scares the city.
    Wait,Wait, Wait!
    Come April, almost all the streets in the water starved areas of Chennai will have a long row of muticoloured plastic waterpots labelled with names and addresses waiting for 20 litres of drinking water supplied by Metro water authorities.There will be stone substitutes also.

    In Jan/Feb you can see serpentine queue waiting from the previous night for Pre Kindergarten Admissions in Front of famous schools.

    In June there is a beeline for arts/ professional colleges.
    If you dial any enquiry number in Airlines or railways you may be listening'You are in queue, please wait.Sometimes we can even finish off making rice or sambar before you
    get the contact.
    There is no dearth of queues in railway stations, airports, post offices, ATMs.- and Income Tax offices. Even in weddings you have to stand in long queue to wish the couple and give the gift, not to talk of waiting behind the dining table eagerly counting mts if the previous occupant has come to curd rice ( last item). I doubt whether it is a marriage hall or flood relief camp.

    Not only waiting in mother's womb for nine long months, there is waiting at crematoria for the final journey too.
    Not to talk of civil cases which endlessly get extended to decades involving third generations.

    You can't have Darsan in important temples without taxing your knees for two to three hrs.
    Whether we wait for God or He waits for us, is not known.

    There is as much disregard to the queue also. There are more breakers than liners.Q crashing is almost a custom in India.

    We see people deftly entering doctor's room saying that the patient is really sick, as if others come to hospital to play or chit chat.

    In many ATMs there is more often an excuse to break the queue that the person was taking out money for funeral expenses.

    In many malls persons buying small quantities take automatic rights while the person behind is waiting with a trolley load.
    '
    Queue kyon? seems to be the average person's attitude!
    Even among elites the queue crashing attitude is there
    As soon as the announcer calls for the boarding of business class passengers or families with kids, there will be a dash by all passengers towards the gate or counter.

    For a flight, when boarding passes with seat numbers are issued, where is the need to rush as soon as the announcement beeper goes off ? Are people scared that someone might "put a towel "and snatch their seat ?
    Normally in US and other Western countries they respect the queue, sometimes go out of the way to help senior citizens and women with babies in arms. Really commendable. But there are exceptions too. During our first visit to US, in John Kennedy Airport in New York, I saw many people bypassing the line, joining the previous line by entering through the dividing ropes, while people with heavy luggage had to stand in the queue.
    The only occasion in the history of mankind when the queue was extremely orderly with no case of any queue breakers was when Noah completed the construction of The Arc and invited all the creatures of the world to come inside in pairs. Since every creature was with its better half, the level of decorum was reasonably high.

    The other queue that I can never forget is the queue for the 'Swarga Vaasal' on Vaikunta Ekadasi night at Srirangam or at Parthasarathy Swamy Temple.,Triplicane. As it was the belief of the staunch Hindus that stepping through this door ensured a place in Vaikuntam for us, there would be mad rush and it was always the question of the survival of the fittest! It made me believe that only the individuals who were expert queue crashers were assured of a place in Heaven! Darwin's theory of 'Survival of the Fittest'applied not only to the Earth but to the Heavens as well!

    It was possibly a habitual queue victim like me that sang 'Que sera sera' ---'whatever will be, will be'!
    Very recently I received a mail from a friend,a student of English literature.He said he was waiting in the airport in the long queue. Since there was system failure, they could not issue boarding passes. There was a delay of about 4 hrs.He was so depressed that he gave a long mail about waiting in the queue.
    I learnt that not only the 'queue' but also the letter 'Q' itself is very queer.
    While writing this, I am reminded of the word 'quaquaversal' which I learnt some 10 years back.You cannot find this word in Chamber's Dictionary. But it is listed in Geographical glossary and that it means 'from the centre focussing towards all directions.'
    When I knew the word 10 years back, I thought I would never use this word in my life time and it is a loss of precious memory space in my brain.I never thought that I would get an opportunity to dequeue the word from my memory in this connection.A simple 'Q' is spread over in so many directions- a classic example of'quaquaversal'..
    The lesson I learnt is as clear as a Quartz.
    We are always advised by psychologists and philosophers
    to live in the present.But we are always in short or long waiting.

    With every 'small scale'waiting or'large scale waiting'we
    unconsciously create an inner conflict between our 'here'
    and 'now',that is the 'Q' where we never want to remain
    and the projected future, admission or travel or promotion,
    where we want to be.
    Doesn't this waiting in 'Q' reduce the quality of life by making
    us lose the present, which is nothing but 'to wait for the future'?

    Jayasala 42
     
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  7. Thyagarajan

    Thyagarajan IL Hall of Fame

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    :hello:Dear madam sister @jayasala42 ,
    I enjoyed reading your FB. You have highlighted far more examples of q and it’s merits & demerits.
    My thread stands hugely enriched by your FB.
    Thanksfrom bottom of my heart.
    Regards.
     

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