Way way back, in the long ago mists of time, when Alexander was still in Greece and thought Porus was what roofs were in the rainy seasons, they started work on a stretch of the Senapati Bapat Road. Said stretch runs from the Marriott all the way up to Chaturshringi Mandir.
Both these monuments didn’t exist when the PMC started work on this stretch, but it is best to describe it thus in the second decade of the twenty-first century.
The exact date when they started work is difficult to ascertain, because that would require digging on part of skilled archaeologists, but for that digging to start, the PMC has to stop digging. And that, I can assure you, hasn’t stopped for aeons.
And the pace at which they’re going, Elon will be on the fourth planet in our solar system before they’re done with it.
Every time I pass that stretch (and you might chortle a little to know that it is a part of my commute to work), I and my fellow sufferers take a look at the large yellow machines, and the large red machines in front of Chaturshringi Mandir and ask ourselves a question that is at the same time inevitable, and unanswerable.
“What”, we say to ourselves through teeth that have become tired of being gritted,”are they doing?” I give you the Pahlaj-ed version, of course, but I’m sure you find yourself capable of imagining the rest of it.
And the reason that question is unanswerable is because I’m sure the PMC itself is no longer sure about what they are up to over there.
As in the case of the Sancheti flyover, they have sailed from the Port of Initiation, and find themselves adrift in a never ending Sea of Utter Befuddlement.
The Senapati Bapat Road project was started in the first week of April this year, but like Panipat, it has been the scene of battle in the years gone by as well. We were assured at the time that it’ll be all done and dusted by the 15th of May, a date which bid us fond farewell over a month ago. And yet the large red and yellow machines desultorily move up and down the closed down stretch for a couple of hours everyday, while commuters and their vehicles fit themselves on what remains of the road.
Here’s what I’d suggest: how about a large, clear, easy to read board propped up on either side of the stretch, with a date of initiation, a projected date of completion, estimated cost and the name, number and email address of the person in charge? Is that unreasonable? Not doable?
Given that it is our dear old corporation, I’m sure it’ll still take every bit as long for the project to get done, and the number won’t work and the email address will be wrong, but hey – we’ll take every placebo we get.
And in the meantime, while we wait for for my proposal to see the light of day, here’s some consolation: so what if Mohenjo Daro now lies in Pakistan? Senapati Bapat Road is right here!
He doesn't expect the paradox to be resolved in his lifetime
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