So it’s another pissed off day at work and I’m driving back, for the millionth time, when the thought struck.
Before we get into the details of things, it’s important that you understand the intriguing factors involved in this complex equation of events that lead to this obscure ridicule.
AKA, prologue…
It started out like any other day, woke up an hour later than I was supposed to… “Fuck!!!”… Wet the hair… Hint of deo… Dash of perfume… Yesterday’s shirt...
And I’m off to the land of the oppressed… Work!!!
Work itself is not discussed here… Let’s just assume that I have the most pissed off job in the world that would drive any normal person to insanity, and me to the land beyond… In case my boss is reading this, take a hint…
Now, my chariot of glory… my bike… my Hero Honda… my Passion… my fuckin piece of shit junk on two wheels…
I acquired this mechanically astounding device during my first year of college… After pulling my fat ass around for almost 7 years, after proving that gravity does exist on multiple occasions, no brakes, no headlight, absolutely no mileage, this 100cc bike still continued to soar through the streets of Hyderabad… 0 to 32 in three minutes flat… A fine example of our superior engineering capabilities…
I loved that piece of junk.
Now for all you non-bikers out there, let me let u in on a little secret. We hate wearing a freaking helmet…
How is this relevant? Read on…
For years onto end, when people think of biking, we associate with it a certain sense of freedom and power, more than being in a car, or any other vehicle for that matter…
That amazing feeling of the wind blowing through the hair, the danger, the agility, the stunts, the power of breaking rules at your finger tips, … And knowing that all this exists in that mean machine between your legs… ;-)
Physics, I tell you, becomes an illusion…
And then the government decides to enforce a helmet upon us… Safety, is what they called it.
Gone was that feeling of freedom, of bliss, of danger…
And instead we got hair loss, constant head aches (that refuse to go away ever), neck pains and the head feeling like a turkey on thanksgiving, every time we go riding in the sun…
Not to mention having to carry the damn thing around wherever you go…
Safety it seems… Safety my ass…
But then the damn thing has saved my good looks (ahem!) on several occasions, so I’m not complaining…
Coming back to the point…
So here I was… Another day… Riding back from work… Head getting roasted bit by bit, when I saw her… She was the most beautiful, the most elegant, the most mesmerizing woman I had ever laid my eyes upon…
A poet couldn’t do this goddess of a woman justice…
Who gives a shit about the watch she’s wearing?
Huh? Where did that come from?
She, ladies and gentlemen, was on a billboard.
Now most people would have given it half a second of thought, if ever, forgotten it and gotten on with their respective lives… Not me, I had to think more on this, and when you got an hour and half of wading through traffic ahead of you, why not?
Billboards… Those huge massive structures featuring the ad of some very rich company in the most traffic infested part of town.
Advertising is a very competitive business, and in a sex-deprived society such as ours, with men and women, at the peak of their respective man and woman-hoods, deprived of their animal instincts, it’s only natural to assume that, sex sells.
Picture the scenario that some guy is driving around his vehicle, through a swarm of traffic… Cycles, bikes, autos, cars, buses, lorries and on occasion road rollers… Almost like mosquitoes at a swamp… And yet through all this, his attention has to be diverted from the road and onto that board…
How do we do it?
Lets put up a picture of some good looking chick, along with a handsome dude, lets strip them down to the bare necessities, perfect lighting to enhance the ‘various features’ of the models, and that sexy, horny expression for guaranteed public appraisal.
Oh yea, write the name of that newspaper somewhere as well… Goddamn product!!!
Now my question is this…
Helmets were made mandatory because the government was so ‘concerned’ about our safety…
If that’s the case, then why are billboards not viewed as potential danger?
I rest my case.