Queues

We were being distributed Sodexho meal vouchers today and as usual there was a pretty long queue. The room is right at the start of a long corridor, next to the entrance of the corridor. The line snaked out from the room and was continually being added to by people who were stepping in through the corridor's entry and so kept growing longer till it was half inside the corridor and half outside.

This wouldn't be such a problem if it wasn't compounded by the fact that the door wouldn't stay open and the ones at the entrance had to hold it in place. The situation was further worsened since the people who had collected their vouchers had to pass out through the same door.

The situation could have been easily improved by queuing up in the opposite direction i.e. towards the other end of the corridor which was pretty distant. I suggested this to the people ahead of me and got the response, 'Oh sure! You go ahead and queue up that way! We'll stand right here! Ha-ha!' O..k. And this helps matters how? Are you stupid? Are you mentally challenged? Are you actually something that looks human but has the intelligence slightly lower than a lump of mud?

Anyway, I did just that. I stepped out of the line and went and stood on the other side. More snickering. 'So you're out of the queue now?' No, you stupid consumer of precious oxygen that would have been put to better use even if only by supporting combustion somewhere, I'm still in the queue. Only, you in your infinite stubborn idiocy refuse to help improve things by thinking a little differently.

How can people be so stupid? Would it hurt anyone to stand that way? Would they get their vouchers any sooner by cramping themselves and contorting into weird postures so they could be either in or out but not bang in the middle of the doorway? Would it be too much to ask to queue up in an orderly way and wait for their turn which is going to come anyway? Maybe it's because we have to struggle for everything everywhere, fight for what should be ours by right. But these are computer professionals ( ostensibly ); they are supposed to be intelligent and be able to think along different directions and come up with efficient solutions to problems. Not behave like brain-dead zombies shuffling along aimlessly towards the point of distribution, blindly following the person ahead of them.

That's another thing I hate: when people shuffle about in a queue; taking little steps and moving ahead half a centimeter at a time. And if you happen to be the ( rare ) person who actually does more with his/ her brain than generate heat, and you hold your ground until such a time when the distance between you and the person ahead of you is actually enough to justify taking a step forward; you will soon find yourself being elbowed and poked in the back and sometimes, literally being stepped into, by the jerk behind you, whose sole function in life seems to be nothing more than to consume food and produce fertilizer ( and, if you're unlucky enough, a rather pungent body odour that they do their best to bring to your notice by holding their arms up right beside your face ). If only they'd use that "drive" for something more constructive. If only they'd pay attention and realize that there is simply nothing to be gained from this behaviour; it doesn't help them, it doesn't help others, ahead or behind them. It doesn't make the line move faster and it doesn't get them more of whatever it is that is being distributed. It simply serves to irritate the hell out of everyone.

It reminds me of this story I'd read once, about a fly that gets trapped in a room. It spots a window and tries to fly out but the window was closed and it keeps smashing against the glass but that doesn't deter it. With heroic obstinacy and stubbornness and self-will, it keeps at it. Until it succumbs to its injuries. It was so focussed on getting out that it didn't notice that right next to that window that was tightly shut, was an open door with freedom beyond. I wonder how many of these dribbling fools will ever notice the door.