Obviously my first thought when I heard that there is a ship stuck in the Suez Canal causing a traffic jam, was, “we should send Haider bhai”.

Haider bhai is, as we say in Bombay, from my area. His shop sits at a very traffic jam prone naka. On normal days he may be seen on the little raised platform outside the shop, feeding lissome leaves to his pet goat (a story for another day). But, there are the traffic emergency days, bole toh, when the 333 is heading to the Mahakali depot just as the 442 is heading up the slope from Takshila, causing an impasse that becomes an impossibility of snarled up scooters, bikes, tempos, minivans, thelas, motorbikes that dizzily keep trying to ghusao and niklo, causing further tension and turmoil. On such days, Haider bhai leaps into action, like a Rubik’s Cube afficionado, adjusting and fitting all manner of vehicles. Unlike the restive passengers and drivers, who keep craning their necks, shouting at each other and stress about reaching work, he is calm, focused, reassuring. There is nothing to be done but keep at it, with self-belief and zen, until, with a big exhalation, the knot opens and traffic moves again like water on skin. Every Bombay neighbourhood has their person.