the road diggers!!

Have you ever noticed the state of our roads..well..the state its in..one cannot miss.
We do spend a lot of time on the road- in cars, autos, buses and as pedestrians.Why not? The roads are meant for us and we are the taxpayers as well..so we are all kind of owners of the roads.

But what do we get in return??

The following-\

Potholes ( to which if you fall into would double up as a grave), broken parts, uneven footpaths ( where there ARE footpaths), gravel and sometimes not even a road!!!!..thanks to the leaders we elect year after year ..thats another story by itself..

but what i wanted to share was something  else..yess..the road diggers!

In a radius of 3 kms, at any time of the year, you will find minimum 4 places where there is active digging going on..either in the middle , sides or on footpaths. If you ask them..they will be from water authority, electricity board or the telephone departments ( sometimes even private citizens digging for some connection or the other)

Errrr..but they are not 'exactly' from the departments..but contract workers whose only job is to DIG!

At times you find the 'supervisor' ( some of them have aides who hold umbrellas over their heads for sun and rain )  with an air of importance and supremacy ,for about 30 minutes or so to ensure that the digging starts on time. Thats the last you see of them

Some places we find a board saying "men at work', other places a stick dug into the ground..if we are lucky the stick will have a red cloth hanging on it ( in Kerala there is no dearth for red cloth of course) But most of the time, you will find mud slung carelessly on both sides that indicates some serious digging is happening

And then the diggers are it..digging deep and wide in desperate vigour and enthusiasm! It may last 2 hours, half a day, one day, several days. Sometimes we find them coming back in regular intervals as well to continue where they left off..more diggging of course!

Whatever the time duration what we are left with is this-

- trenches that are dug and left open. With no warning signs or boards. Just like that! Maybe the contract workers are hired just to dig it open and not close them.

- hurriedly closed holes that look like  heavily  pregnant boas.

- closed holes with huge pipes thrown on them ( which luckily are gaily colourful!)

- and not a single person ACCOUNTABLE or  ANSWERABLE to such irresponsibilities!

So we what we have learnt

- take all this in our stride..even accept it
- master the art of walking or steering expertly around and through these trenches- closed or opened.
- and still continue to pay road taxes!

Jai Hind!