Scaredevils

Don't get excited about whether this is another new IPL team on the anvil, probably headed by another Bollywood star( considering the hot , but not so successful romance between the IPL and Bollywood) . This is also not one of the new horrible horror movies that Hollywood keeps churning out with alarmingly regular frequency.This is something that we see every month on the roads on the new moon day in most parts of Tamil nadu; I am not sure of the other places in India. The plump green member of the gourd family , though not preferred on most days , in spite of its high fibre content , suddenly finds itself a hot property on the last days of lunar calendar. The plump thing with resemblance to a round head is given a face by drawing facial features using vermilion, though only to mimic a scary devil face. And these are thrashed on the road in the mornings with a view to ward of the evil eyes that have been laid upon the family or the business. Most shops , small and big are no exceptions to this ! I am not sure if these are potent enough to chase the evils , but I am sure they are quite good enough to skid the forms , next only to devils in the degree of polluted minds - the human beings! The juicy slippery injured and split gourd is as efficient in skidding a two wheeler, as would a banana skin be in tumbling a pedestrian ! And their presence at every ten feet on the road on the specified day, would turn the roads into an effective test course for obstacle challenge course for riders. Ones avoiding all those 'scare devils' and also not hurting any other co road users would definitely qualify for competitive obstacle challenge ! I have been lucky enough to have avoided both so far ! The dark new moon days , complicated by poor/ absent street lighting , transforms these supposedly devil scarers into devils themselves for the uninitiated as well as frequent users of the road . I don't know how a gourd can ward of the evil and even if people feel, they have the right to believe in whatever they wish, they should be sensible enough to understand that they cannot put others' lives and limbs at risk to get a false satisfaction of having protected themselves. Owing to the fact that our people have a very low civic sense , I presume it's time government does something to ban their breaking on the roads !!