LAZZO took a long stare around him as he trudged along on a tarred road that was once a wind-swept dirt stretch.
Instantly, he saw a wayward youth racing and cycling from behind who made a sudden u-turn right in front of him!
He wondered what would have happened if there had been an onrushing car from the opposite direction on the spur of the moment as he made this abrupt turnaround!
Still tales of recent bashings on these roads had abounded in the hood as excited motorists drove at full throttle.
As he walked on, he noticed a new road which must have given Chinese road engineers quite a poser as its precincts looked like a transplant of a village save for the corrugated iron rooftops!
The cluster of houses was sandwiched between a narrow stretch which made it very difficult for the grader driver to manoeuvre.
In Lazzo’s perception, some houses needed to be completely removed to pave way for the graded road but finally, he understood the complexity of these decisions…
This snaky stretch seemed to run between an extreme corner and an electric pole that was a pointer to construction psychology of the heydays.
But on closer scrutiny, Lazzo observed that the builders had no idea about the scope of expansion.
Now, the crux of the matter is that a structure has to be demolished to leave way for the road.
As he sauntered on, he overheard a conversation between two residents of the hood.
“What are you saying now?…you mean we are now going to eat roads?,”
said one speaker intent on making the other sound unreasonable.
“But that is queer thinking because you know that you cannot eat infrastructure but improved roads will help the community to move conveniently,” replied the other holding back his dislike for naivety.
The other of the trio walking on the edge of the road commented:” Yes, we should appreciate what has happened because since the last time in the First Republic, there have not been many tarred roads here,” he said with a tone of conviction.
“I like the shortcuts that will result from this network of roads because we will be able to move into other sections of the city easily other than before when we had to get into town before going to the hospital for example,” the second speaker said sounding moderate.
However, Lazzo noted that successive governments came into place to deliver specific developments.
“In fact, I do not believe in political arguments about who has brought what here as long as it benefits the people,” intoned the man in his early forties who seemed to have had a flurry of arguments at the watering hole before.
He was the one pointing out the other day that the hood had seen radical development as more entrepreneurs got into business.
“No longer do we have small shops that look like they are almost falling over with names like the Anthill Bar and proving popular,” he had said as Lazzo seemed to look into empty space but listening intently.
“In fact, where the Anthill Bar used to be is a completely new building and transformed into a school. But what I have noticed is
that a number of buildings have sprung up looking much better although we have old structures in form of houses around them,” the man had said.
Lazzo had reached a corner where pork was selling fast while some of it was being roasted.
This was at the height of the swine fever scare and although various media reports suggested that potential buyers of pork should abstain, this was to the contrary!
Nearby, was a makeshift stall selling alcohol from opaque drink to the hard type whose buyers were predominantly youthful. It had many names from the old lexicon with the latest being ‘Tujilijili’ originally acked in plastic sachets.
He noticed that the same stuff was now providing roaring business in bottles and there seemed to be no dull moments in these parts!
Lazzo also noticed that the older generation had retreated into their typical enclaves where they sipped their cherished opaque brew away from noisy and intimidating youths.
Behind the cluster of houses bordering a recently paved road where still dungeons were peddling in home-brewed gin popularly known as Kachasu and equally these were not short of clients.
There was evidence of particular stall owners shifting from one brand of trade to another.
It seemed to be a haphazard business formation that seemed to revolve round unskilled labour.
Lazzo reached a crossroads that marked the end of the older section of the hood whose values still seem to steep in old values but in their midst, one could watch a soccer match on television.
In the fairer sections of the sprawling hood, one could also find a plasma and innate surroundings resembling the inner city central business district. Lazzo was impressed for once.
There was a time when he had so much compassion for the underclass until he realised that his life was like living in a snakepit. Oh, how he loathed those reptiles!
They were in fact a manifestation of evil as espoused in Christian teachings and were principal to man’s First Rebellion!
Now, he seemed to have changed his mind because he thought at once stage, he was overcome with naivety and could not see the wood for the trees or is it vise-versa!
After 50 years, the younger generation seemed to have inherited the ragged culture of their older folks in which girls do not cook like their mothers but imbibe like their fathers!
He came round the bend as the trio who had provided a transient debate seemed headed for the dead-end of the street.
Lazzo had reached the watering hole as he branched off the tarmac road, he was greeted by a reverberating loud propagation of music from a gigantic speaker placed near the entrance while the other was inside.
The ages old notion of enticing patrons was at the core of this habit which irritated Lazzo. He had tried in vain to take the bull by the horns on this one but to no avail!
Everyone in the precincts had to speak very loudly to be heard and in the process there was an avalanche of noise that made nonsense of the music played.