Q up

Every morning and evening on my way to and fro from my home to office, Kolkata’s organized disorder is at its very best. Droves of people on their way to work, traffic, horns, sweat, congestion. And don't even talk about those days when the gods decide to take a leak. Amidst all this disorder there's one astonishing thing that works absolutely in an order – forming a queue.

The omnipresent queue is perhaps a reflection of the docile, law abiding, orderly Bengalis. It may also be a reflection of the socialist ideology after 30 years of communist rule. All people should get equal opportunities and no one should behave like a capitalist and go out of the way, break to queue to do something different.

But what I see here definitely is not just a sign of civility. It goes beyond that. Queues pretty much represent the mentality of the masses – like a herd. I say this because even if there are empty buses, a new counter that opens up people still stick the longer queue. Is it a sense of pride, of loyalty that prevents action or simply a sign of lethargy and lack of self-confidence.  Although people don’t seem to break the line but they have definitely crossed the line here. The passing away of opportunities, complacency and myopic attitude to anything new has taken its deep roots in Bengal.

Bengal was once the crown of the English empire. Long live the Queen today has become Long live the Queue. Queues are necessary for maintaining order but blindly forming them everywhere would be as useless as the ‘ueue’ after q in queue.