Queues – the most seen, disturbing and persistent now occurrence

Who would have thought queues would be miles long; of people, motor bikes, various types of vehicles with even a toy car parked to mark a place for a queue-er. And who would have imagined the varied activity of queued people: eating, drinking, often impromptu partying, birthing and even dying in queues, beside vituperation and fisticuffs leading to assault and battery. It seems tame to speak of queues which connote orderliness against what is current.

I write this article soon after Ranil W (now given the surname Rajapaksa!) was elected to serve out GR’s balance term. We wishfully hope it will not stretch that long. The loud protesters, not the original aragalaya peaceful lot, threatened to come out if this happened. I shiver with fear as to what may happen. We so hoped for peace and a settling down of the people, with a Prez being voted by the MPs, approved of by the people spoken for by trade unionists and much of civil society. But what happened shows the caliber of most of our MPs and that corruption is far from quelled; rather is it further fueled supposedly by one individual. And the queues will continue for some time more, most hopefully not in the midst of renewed civil disobedience.

Reasons for choice of topic

First reason is that we in this Paradise sent completely wonky and bankrupt by a few persons (or devils incarnate, I should say) and living lives dominated by scarcity of the most basic of necessities, formed queues to get them. I need not elaborate on that.

The next reason was reading an article in the New York Times: In Sri Lanka the queues are ubiquitous – and orderly by Mujib Mashal, Emily Schmall and Skandha Gunasekera dated July 19. In it, with many pictures, they write of the humaneness of people in queues and elsewhere in these times of terrible deprivation and difficulty; of meals being cooked and shared and the immense help given to hospitals by out-of-country groups and governments.

I was also sent an article about queues formed in Wimbledon for tickets to the tennis from end June to early July. I watched most of the center court matches this year and palpitated each time my favourite player faced an opponent. I mean here Novak Djokovic with his calm, restrained skill. Thank goodness he ended up winner at Wimbledon this year too. That’s a venue he says he loves, having first played there in 2006 aged 19. This year’s win at the only grass courts in the Grand Slam in four locations, makes it seven in a row for Djokovic now counting 21 Grand Slam wins.

Personal observation

My first mindful acquaintance with a queue was in Kandy as a teenager – that’s long ago. Expositions of the Tooth Relic saw the first queues in the town snaking their way to the side entrance of the Dalada Maligawa each day of the period of exposition; needless to say people in them increasing by the day. Mother being devout was a frequent pilgrim, but never through standing in a queue. At that time the Diyawadana Nilame was voted in by Kandyan District Revenue Officers and thus these DROs and their near relatives were offered passes which entitled direct access to the place of exposition and even invited to the holy of holies to watch the procedure of removing the casket containing the relic from is gold jewellery encrusted outer casket. Mother, with a son and son-in-law DROs, would go even to the innermost sanctum. Not me. I stood outside totally embarrassed and wishing I could have made my way in the queue.

Then with population increase and me getting involved with banking, paying bills etc, it meant standing in queues and watching some just push themselves in. What annoyed and perplexed me most was why people had to press against each other. You had your place so stand in your own space. No. It meant the person behind’s breath would be on your cringing-with- distaste neck. Covid precautions put paid to this awful habit, so also of the person behind you stretching his hand over you, almost touching your shoulder, to hand in something to the counter clerk.

A friend’s experience

I must narrate one of my friend’s experience in queuing which she has done latetely for both gas and petrol. V is a young widow, managing her life by herself. Though seemingly naïve and looking helpless – having had a privileged life – she gets tough when the going gets rough. She said she spent many an hour in gas and petrol queues, but the longest for a gas cylinder was 19 hours. She would take her place in the queue after having parked her car and when nearing the top of the line, she would get her cylinder from the car boot and roll it to her spot on the line. She says she encountered various characters but most were considerate and decent.

I could hardly believe her when she said that more than once she spent the entire night in her car for petrol or gas. She made friends with many fellow-sufferers, and mentioned a couple who was in front of her once. The man would walk off to bring his wife food and drink. From the first he offered to bring her food and beverages too. She very nearly fainted (she thought it was a heart attack!) in a car queue, but was saved in time by the kind offer of a bottle of Fanta and shared sandwich by the man in the car in front of hers.

If standing in a queue, she just plunked herself down to sit on a ledge, a parked three wheeler with the driver sprawled in the front, or even on the bare road or pavement. A well got up woman went up and down the line once, putting it into shape. Those in the queue ignored her, but warned my friend to be aware – saying she’d creep in or steal your bag. This parading act was again enacted by another woman showing much flesh, heavily made up and sun-glassed. No one knew why she was walking back and forth along the queue.

A three wheeler twosome worked out their strategy: one handled both their vehicles, moving them as required, while the other takes a long rest at home. He returns rejuvenated when it’s the other’s time for R&R.

The very worst of this situation we are still undergoing is that it is man-made: the consequence of criminal mismanagement and cruel unconcern for the welfare of the less privileged – by those who were/are in power. Many still in office seem only concerned about their own detested skins. We do hope a further step of looking after themselves will not be taken by ordering tougher measures to control protesters, who are sure to swarm the streets again.

However, humaneness is seen all over the island and by all sorts of people. Daily domestic workers are paid more in kind and cash; three wheeler hires are up, yet the driver is paid more for he would have stayed hours in a queue to get the fuel for half day’s running, LOLC, MTV 1 and Candle Aid are three organizations that have been distributing dry rations to poorer households. Many are the impromptu street kitchens that mushroom themselves.

Queues at Wimbledon

The All England Club, which conducts an annual ticket lottery and also has season-ticket holders, has a daily capacity for around 42,000 spectators. It reserves about 500 seats each on Centre Court, No. 1 and No. 2 for those in the queue who pay face value for tickets. Those who fail to get a main court ticket among the thousands in the queue, can still buy a grounds pass for access to the outside of the courts. Even this accommodation could mean a long wait. We have seen on TV the orderly crowds outside the actual courts, picnicking and watching the matches on wide screens. Often people stay another night in a tent to try their luck for a main court viewing spot.

A definite date for first queuing for tickets is not known but a British tennis historian and author puts it down to 1927 with people lining up at dawn. Overnight queuing started in the 1950s and is now almost a sport in itself. Queues are formed in hired tents with hired air mattresses, pitched in numbered rows on the grass near a lake adjacent to the All England Club. Food trucks, unisex bathrooms, a first-aid center, guards and stewards are a-plenty. Volunteers rouse tent sleepers at around 5 a m giving them plenty time to pack their belongings, check them in at the huge storage tent and then join the queue for the issue of tickets which begins at 10 a m.Would-be ticket holders are issued a card with a number starting at 00001 when they arrive at the park. Needless to say demand for tickets is greater when the most famous play, like during the Federer years when people camped two nights in a bid to get a ticket.