A retired man turned Traffic Cop

I was on my way to meet one of my friends and I was so frustrated with the traffic at the Crystal Chowk, Queens road (Amritsar). I got stuck at this roundabout for almost 15 minutes because of traffic and to make it worse the traffic lights were not working which made every thing chaotic. Somehow, after about half an hour later, I was able to cross that roundabout. And what was making me even more scared was that I had to get back via this same route after meeting my friend.

And to my surprise when I was coming back all the traffic was smoothly managed even though there was no traffic cop and the traffic lights were still not working. I saw one elderly gentleman guiding the traffic and he was doing it very well.

I was curious and asked him that since he had retired and this was the time when he could just sit back at home and play with his grandchildren or do any leisurely activity, why would he do all this? And his answer was,

“I had watched civilians working as traffic marshals to manage traffic in some foreign countries on television. It instantly came to my mind that I can also work as a traffic marshal after retirement,” said Harjinder Singh.

“More and more people should come forward to reduce the traffic chaos in the city,” he added. “I feel that there is a need to educate school students as they are the future drivers.”

He was very happy and shared his phone number with me and he thanked me for stopping by and acknowledging his efforts.

“It motivates me to save people’s lives from road accidents,” he added.

We still have people in our society who work for the welfare of society. He is 65 and could’ve easily taken a more relaxed path in life. However, he patrols around the city on his bike all day and offers his service whereever it is required. He doesn’t get paid for this job – in fact he uses his retirement savings to contribute towards regulating traffic.