A FRAMING TALE

PROLOGUE:

 “ALLONS” (let us go) I say (like a Frenchman would) as I start a tale of a road! Highway HH was being opened 5 years ago. The politico spoke into the mike addressing a large gathering. “Despite so many difficulties highway HH has been completed. I say again where there is a will there is a way. HH is an important link between two important industry centers P and Q which only had a narrow  road between them so far.”  Traffic started flowing. Three years had passed.

.CITIZEN DICK OF TOWN P SAYS:

 I had been invited to a wedding reception that evening but my job required me to overstay. It was late and I chose to borrow a friend’s scooter to attend the function. On my way on HH that night I saw one of the street lights had failed to glow. Right beneath it was a treacherous pothole which wasn’t clear in my vehicle’s head light. I hit it at speed and the scooter fell tossing me to the road. Luckily for me traffic was low at that hour and I escaped being run over. I didn’t know that my friend’s scooter had poor brakes. I ended up paying for repairs to the scooter and for medical attention to my fractured wrist! Lessons learnt: Better maintenance of the road and street light were needed. One shouldn’t speed driving a vehicle one isn’t used to.

RAILWAY GATE OPERATOR SAYS:

Building a road isn’t enough. The obstacles on it have to be overcome. Leaving town P, HH leads to my railway crossing. More trains of longer length go across. People wait long for the trains to pass. Intrepid pedestrians gaily walk across. One unfortunate woman wearing high heels was trapped on the rails and had to be pushed off the track just in time. Driver of a lorry apparently had brake failure and his vehicle stood in the way of a goods train which hit it and tossed it out of the way. The lorry had to be written off and railways had to incur expenditure on repairing the facilities at this crossing where I work. Three years after HH was laid, building of an over bridge commenced.   

BRIDGE ENGINEER SAYS:

It took one year to build an overpass. Not because it was difficult but due to interruptions in free flow of traffic. We allowed temporary one lane traffic for the period. There were tonnes of steel girders and barrels of construction material often randomly stocked on HH.  The overpass was ready. It was a different politico who declared the bridge open. It was a bridge with twin lanes with a lane divider in between. Exactly three months after the bridge had been inaugurated something happened on it: One night 2 under aged kids who were under the influence of liquor, somehow managed to bring their dad’s car on to HH. It was a new high performance vehicle and the kids lost control on the new overpass. The car broke one of the restraining walls and fell. The kids were seriously injured and the car was a total loss.

A RESIDENT OF TOWN P SAYS:

We celebrated the wedding of our son Mohan aged 13. He married Reena aged 11. The grand wedding took place in secret as it is unlawful for underage children to be married! To conceal the real reasons for celebrations we had announced they were for my 50^th birthday! After the wedding our guests went on foot to worship at a temple a short distance away over HH. There were several boys and girls in the group and they slowly wended their way to the accompaniment of hit songs by a live band besides bursting crackers. The boisterous children danced without a care on HH. A speeding ambulance driver had difficulty steering through the crowded road while the patient’s attendant in the vehicle wanted speed. Though he horned loudly the crowd didn’t give way. The ambulance sped past leaving eleven of the merry makers wounded.

INSPEECTOR OF POLICE - TOWN P SAYS:

Town P has a large jewelry store. It was very popular and was allowed to be kept open after dark.  The store had provided enough security staff for its safety. One night I got a message that there was a hold up in the shop. 3 men armed with guns who had come on foot had somehow entered the shop. They were masked. I was informed they had overpowered the 2 security staff, and were stuffing a large number of valuable jewelry items in their bags. The shop was some distance away from my station and I immediately set off with 2 cops in my jeep. When I reached I saw 3 masked men climbing into a red car which drove away fast to HH and we set off in pursuit.  The burglar’s car was well ahead and I fired a warning shot. The burglars returned the fire and went at breakneck speed. They tried to smash the barrier in a toll booth on the way but failed.  The red car had stopped. There was an exchange of fire and in the end one of the burglars was dead. The other 2 had slipped away in the dark.  I found 2 employees at the toll collection booth had been slightly injured. I got more cops to search for the missing burglars. They were found hiding in a roadside ditch next morning and the loot was recovered.  

HEAD HONCHO OF TOWN P SAYS:

Rainy seasons render roads impassable. There was torrential rain for almost 4 days over town P. There was serious water logging. To add to it we had to shed some water from a dam for its safety. Town P and a part of HH came under knee deep water. People who could move to higher floors of buildings escaped from the flood. After 2 more days the sky cleared and rubber dinghies and catamarans started relief work. Roads were being cleared. Houses facing HH had also been badly affected. Boatman Tom delivered food and water to those living on HH. But he was electrocuted when he accidentally came into contact with a fallen lamp post. Another boatman was ferrying a sick woman who needed hospitalization. The boat had to go some distance to reach the ambulance parked in higher ground. But suddenly the boat could go no further due to a submerged tree trunk. The woman lost her life on the boat on HH. It took nearly 2 weeks for normalcy to reach our town.

ENVOI:

Between town P and Q but some distance from it was the sea port MZ. It was being developed to receive ships from abroad and the work was completed seven years after HH had been re-laid. A road was laid from MZ to the GZ industrial area cutting across HH. The pressure on HH is now less but it remains another arterial highway.

END