Right? Not Always.......

On Indian roads, in the evening, when lampposts are turned on, the whole environment seems orange. After all there are only 3 colors one could render, if, in case someone would even think about it, and they were black, grey and orange. Orange would be an after effect because of the light from the lampposts.  An unknown man stood, with 2 other men, on the footpath. It was quite late in the evening, and that footpath ended near the traffic signal, which as always, turned red suddenly. Another man driving a sedan stopped at the signal, waiting for it to turn green.

He was going back to his place, and on his face he looked exhausted. That was all one could really figure out if someone could really see his face. He didn’t push his window shields of the door of his car up, they were pulled down, so he could see everything that was happening, around, not many other vehicles were there with him, on the signal, waiting for a green light. He looked around, on that pavement, 3 men were standing and talking, their activity made him curious. One of them, stood in between, not literally but as he saw it, 2 of them faced each other, the guy in between could see their cheeks, in a way he was standing, and his face was visible to the guy driving and the sedan guy could see the cheeks of the other two guys, but from the opposite ends.

The 2 guys facing each other were calm, too calm to be harmful. The guy on the right of the sedan guy pulled out a blade, one with broad width, sharp edges and shiny surface. He stuck its tip almost on the abdomen of the guy facing him, if he made a move, the knife would tear the muscle and make its way inside, damaging internal digestive organs and lead to possible hemorrhaging.

The sedan guy looked around. At a distance, behind his car stood a man on his motorcycle wearing a helmet and he didn’t shake his head or nod to check if something was wrong there. On his right there was an SUV parked. A red colored, SUV, huge in size. Possibly, there were travelers inside, one could listen music being played inside that car and a bunch of people having fun, what they were talking about, continued to be inaudible. Behind that SUV there was an auto-rickshaw, that guy was possible smoking, all he could see through the hind window of his car and the front window shield of the auto rickshaw, was a flaming bud, that moved out of his mouth and back, he too didn’t seem to be bothered about the activity that was going on at the pavement. He looked at the traffic signal timer, 43, 42, 41…. One second at a time, the number displayed there, above the signal automatically subtracted itself by one. He looked back at the 3 people at the footpath, the guy with blade, had hidden it, he kept one hand on the other guy’s shoulder, and was talking, telling him something, the listener listened calmly, the third guy rested on one of the cemented blocks along the footpath, he was looking down, not making a move, he seemed to be helpless.

The guy who was talking was trying to console him for something, the listener, following his gaze, he probably was seeing speaker’s 2^ndbutton on his shirt. The sedan guy checked the counter. It was still counting backwards, 23, 22, 21. Till now nothing had happened, on the pavement, loud enough to attract attention, but the faces of the three people, told something else, the speaker had a blade and he was too peaceful, too peaceful to be someone really moral. The sedan guy, wondered, he should call the police? Or perhaps he should wait and see, what happens. He didn’t know what these people were up to. This city was not under surveillance, at night time, if this place would be traffic free, bad things could be done, and people could leave without a trace. The timer was ticking, 13,12,11….. if he stays and sees what happens next, it could take time. What if I wait and nothing serious happens, or may be these people are talking and will leave after sometime? He thought, he could not avoid a possibility though. If he called the police, there were more possibilities, they might hold him, they might ask him a set of questions, if this was a possible crime, then he could be called in as a witness, and in case all this turns out to be nothing that serious, then unnecessarily he will face humiliation from the police, if this blade guy is a real criminal, the sedan guy could stop him now, but what if he becomes a trouble in the long run and a dozen of other possibilities, he looked at the timer……. 3,2,1 and the green bulb lit, he powered up his engine, geared his car moved past the signal, for once, he did check what those guys were doing, through his rear view mirror.

The guy visible in the middle of the two was now looking away, the guy who was speaking started unbuttoning the listener’s shirt as he was drawing his knife out, and the listener was looking beyond the speakers head, his gaze towards another traffic signal tower or may be beyond it, towards the sky.

The sedan guy left the clutch as he pressed the accelerator lever and set his vehicle in motion as he saw one guy unbuttoning another guy’s shirt with a knife in his hand until he took a right turn, round a circular construction. This circular construction was established to avoid traffic jams. As he went right, that pavement slowly transitioned into the round circular construction in the rear view mirror, housing greenery and statues of people, politicians mainly who contributed in building the city, in between a Mahatma Gandhi Statue was raised.