Saturday, May 28, 2005

Absurdism in Chapi

While criss-crossing Chapi's sun-burnt hills, we came across a neat little railway phaatak, where a neat little sign-post stood, warning us of a 'speedbreaker ahead'.

We were sure that the signpost was either stolen property, or else, a sarcastic comment on some road-construction project, abandoned before it could begin... probably the doing of a villager, who had an unsual sense of the absurd).

There was no road in sight for miles; there was no question of having a speedbreaker.

But when we eventually stumbled, over rock and dust, to the phaatak, we realised that the sign was in dead earnest.

Sure enough, there was no road - not even a kuccha dirt-track; but, there was this handsome, tarred-dambarred, two-foot high bump of a speedbreaker, nestling against the railway track.

And I'm still wondering if it could be the doing of a sarkaari contractor with a sense of the absurd?

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