The jack

This is not about the jack of all trades.

Indian roads are known for their potholes and specially in the monsoons, these ugly horrors find their way on the front pages in every newspaper worth its salt.

They are living proof ( I guess that is an inappropriate term as they’re obvious on-living… but they do reduce the lifespan of all manners of vehicles and occasionally of human life).

Anyways after a lot of pothole bashing… some do-good we fills them with pebbles or the municipality does a short-lived hack job.

The thing is this is a perfect recipe for traffic jams.

There are jams caused by vehicles slowing down to limit damage to themselves, or the spines of those within.

Then there are jams caused by vehicles breaking down… the clutch plates giving way… or more often a punctured tyre.

Either way, one out of the two or three lanes is lost and a couple of hours of productivity too.

Then there are times when a biker or his pillion or both are knocked off by the gaping holes and the accident stops the traffic for hours.

It’s the second case this write up is about….the vehicle broken down….with a tyre puncture.

One has to get drenched in the dripping rain, get the spare tyre out ( God help you if you haven’t got that one repaired), and get down and dirty your hands to replace the worthless one.

Heading out to work after that is ruled out unless you have a shower and spare clothes in your office.

But replacing a tyre is easier said than done.

You need that magical piece of equipment called the jack.

Jack is not a common name in India but the word ‘jack’ is.

It is not limited to getting your car back on its feet (I mean…tyres). … but also got working your way out of a mess ( I’m not referring to the sludge on the road).

Some people scratch your car or deflate your tyres and then use their jack to get away with it.

With jack around you have more freedom than the ones who don’t have a jack or choose not to use one.

So jack is your saviour to get yourself to move on.

Also for getting your way, your jack has to be stronger than the other jacks.

And the tragedy is that if your tyre is deflated, you have to have a powerful jack to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Jill apparently doesn’t have a role to play in this horror film.

But I believe Jill exists….maybe she’s frail and weak… … her bucket is heavy….but she’s there…..on firm ground.

Jack may fall and hurt his crown, but Jill will put down that heavy bucket…and not let it spill.

If she tumbled, she will climb again…and fetch that life saving water…. so her people are no longer deprived.

She has a power beyond every power that can destroy all the destructive jacks.

The power of divine intervention.

The power of the occasional good guy who fills the potholes and the power of the pen… the once that put the headlines in the newspapers.

If all the Jills stood up to the Jacks, we wouldn’t need jacks anymore.

PS: Jack and Jill do not represent a particular sex or religion or caste …or class