Tar Boiler saves the day

My father should have been elected “President of the Society for Saving Industrial Revolution Relics”! He loved Tar Boilers, and couldn’t bear to see them in neglect. There was a rusty old tar boiler on our road for more than a decade, and one day he just brought it home. The tar boiler settled in quite comfortably and my mother grew plants in it and pidgeons laid eggs in it. Our fascinatingly rambling old house in Calcutta was full of such curiosities.
Whenever I see a tar boiler on Bangalore’s roads, I think of my father.
This story is also a tribute to The Great Bangalore Traffic Jam- which happens every day, and every day Bangalorians wait for some kind of salvation- which never seems to come.
Well… one day… salvation came!

Tar Boiler saves the day!

The bridge under the train tracks was so low that cars and buses and trucks kept getting stuck. And there would be frightful traffic jams everyday.
“We need a new bridge” said the important people of the city.
“Bangalore needs a new bridge” declared the newspapers.
The latest road builders were called in. In no time at all they broke down some old houses which came in the way and started to build a brand new bridge.
“Look how they work! ” marveled everyone.
Very soon, a brand new bridge was ready.
Then, it started to rain, and the road below the new bridge become very slushy and muddy. Cars and buses and trucks and bikes floated about like boats.
There was a lot of honking and beeping. It got the policemen very worried.
But the new road builders couldn’t fix the muddy road.
Then the builder remembered the tar boiler in his yard.
“I’ll get the tar boiler” he said.
Tar Boiler came trundling with his helpers- Tar Drum and Tar Mixer. They all got to work. A bright coal fire burned merrily in Tar Boiler’s stomach. Tar Boiler made hot sticky tar to pour on the road.
The road was ready and the traffic was ready to rush off.
The policeman blew his whistle for everyone to say “Hurrah for Tar Boiler!".
And then the traffic rushed off.