Traffic jams can be interesting places. People honk, motorcyclists veer and kids find something interesting to stare at. Friends are well familiar with the undeniable phenomenon that plagues me, namely that if there is a child in the restaurant I go to and he has large round eyes and a nearly bald head, vaguely resembling a melon, he/she will immediate shift their entire focus to me, causing me extreme discomfort since if there's one thing I can't stand, it's a melon with eyes staring at me. Imagine my delight, then, upon noticing in this particular traffic jam that the restaurant rule does not apply and the child in the car in front of mine is quite happy staring at other people/cars.

From seemingly thin air, or if you want to put it less dramatically, from right behind me, a large man on a small motorcycle veers in between our cars. The child up front is absolutely fascinated with this man riding a symbol of a dangerous manhood. The boy's fascination, of course, fascinates me. The man chews sloppily on what I assume to be "paan", all the while balancing the instrument of transportation on one leg, while suavely, almost fluidly, smoothing back his moustache. The boy is absolutely enchanted. This is what he wants to be when he grows up. The alpha male, the summation of the boy's vision of what a Man's Man would be like. The Man, in a practiced gesture of nonchalance, spits the beetleleaf residue on the sidewalk. The boy's eyes light up. Halfway across the world, this boy's counterpart would think in terms of John Wayne in a similar situation. This boy knows of no such man. In a flippant gesture, with the boy's eyes following his every movement like a laser beam, the Man flips his windswept collar back down and adjusts his motorcycle's position to give his leg some relief. With the careless air of a manwith infinite time on his hands, he turns and spots a female in the car adjescent. The boy shifts his gaze to discover what is worthy enough to capture his role model's attention.

Now they are both leering at me unabashedly. The torch is passed.