The Era of Queues

If there was a breakdown in the electricity supply, one could ring up the complaint number via the landline phone. Despite praying for it to be answered, it used to be non-responsive most of the times.

- JAS KOHLI

Many senior citizens have nostalgia pre-loaded into their vocal apparatus; they love to wax eloquent about the times when they were looking up to their lives and not looking down upon them. A few days ago, I too happened to go down memory lane. After getting the correction of the home electricity bill in the electricity board office, I had to deposit some amount at the counter in the same building. But the job was as easy as saying one, two, three. In fact, it was an anti-climax because there was no waiting.

I remembered the times when there were long queues at the same place since there was no other modality of paying bills (The inventors of internet and digital payments were dreamers in those days and became movers and shakers later on). Often, so much time was spent in depositing a bill that by the time they finished the task, some persons noticed an increase in the number of grey hairs. The queues helped develop patience and docility in the population, which in turn prevented riots and upheavals.