A Busy week!!

Last week has been very busy for me with no time to blog!! The week was full of calls running for hours together. I think the coming week is also going to be busy from the signals I have got so far. There are few things which happened during the week worth sharing.

When the petrol price was reduced? Thanks to the hectic schedule I was not aware of the petrol price cut. My car was running low on fuel for the last 4 days of the week but I didnt bother to fill up because everybody was talking ofthe imminent price cut and you dont have any stamina to stop at a petrol pump very late in the day and fill up. Finally I did it on Saturday morning only to be pleasantly surprised by the price which showed up on the petrol vending machine. I was toldby the petrol pump attendant that the petrol price was cut 2 days back and looked at me very differently!!

There was a carnival organised at my son's school and I was given the responsibility of taking him there. Almost all kids were accompanied by their parents and the area was bustling. Couple of things which really irritated me were the careless attitude of the school management in organising the various rides and irresponsible behaviour of the parents!! There was no volunteers/organisers to regulate the queue to any of the game. It was utter chaos and no sense of discipline among students, which was quite understandable, and even among parents. At least, 50% of the parents try to squeeze their way in the middle of the queue thinking that nobody sees them.

I was standing in one of the queues along with my son and a parent holding his 4-5 year old son comes and stands in parallel to me in the queue. I guessed that this gentleman is trying to do a short cut to get in first. I waited patiently to get an opportunity to tell him that he better join the queue, else I would create a scene out there. Opportunity did come and told him that we are in a queue and he has to go back and join the queue. The man replied without blinking his eyes that where he is standing is the queue and me and other 10 kids standing behind me or of no concern to me. I cant control it any longer and burst off at that gentleman. He grudgingly walked back to join the queue.

The second instance is where parents want their children alone to have all the fun without worrying about how many other kids are waiting for the same. In this case it is the merry go round. For every trip in merry go round, you have to pay a token which costs you Rs10, which goes on for 5 minutes. How do you find a place in the merry go round and put your child in is by using a "push-pull" formula. There is no system or queue in place so you have to go and stand in a vantage position before the merry go round comes to a complete halt and then quickly grab a horse or scooter and stand near it. First time, when I did, a school girl studying 4 or 5th standard bulldozed her way and got into the seat. I didnt want to disappoint that little girl and so I went and told my son to wait for some more time. Second time, I grabbed a seat and felt like Abinav Bindra winning the olympic gold medal. But the shock came in the form of the parent telling me that I cant get that seat as well because the kid wants to go for one more round. I cant take it any longer.. feeling cheated.. I blew my top off.. This time a volunteer came running and arranged for a seat.. I didnt know how he managed that.

I dont understand why parents behave in such fashion in front of their kids.. Dont we need to set examples to our kids by following discipline, giving opportunity to others? It seems unfortunately not!