Thiruvananthapuram: If you spot an impromptu barricade of stones and tiles on a Bengaluru pavement, you know you are following Manju Thomas. The human resources professional has declared war on the two-wheeler riders who rev up on the pavements to bypass the chock-a-block roads of the city.
The Kottayam native simply refuses to give way to the riders who terrorise pedestrians, as witnessed by thousands of people through a viral video. Thomas was walking along the busy Corporation Circle when she spotted two youngsters riding through the pavement.
She stood on their way and refused to back out despite intimidating obscenities. The riders eventually bucked in front of the determined woman and quietly returned to the road. One of the passers-by shot the rare confrontation on his mobile phone and uploaded it.
As the video went viral on social media, the additional commissioner of police in the city ordered the deputy commissioners of police to take strict action to keep the pavements safe from unruly riders.
The vengeance
Thomas said that she had been standing up to the violators for three years. Every time she sees two-wheeler riders encroaching pavements, she piles up stones and other objects to make it impossible to ride on the footpath.
So what prompted her to launch her strange agitation? Her fight started three years ago, when she was a student of the Christ College in the city.
She was walking on a footpath when a two-wheeler whizzed past her. Her bag caught the handle of the motorcycle and was torn into pieces. All her belongings were strewn on the road yet the violators did not even turn back.
Though the menace is the norm in Bengaluru, Thomas decided that enough was enough. She did everything she could to prevent two-wheeler riders from getting on to the pavement.
Viral video
Her claim to fame was the recent incident at Corporation Circle which was caught on camera by Pavan Kumar. She was returning from work and she had just built a “barricade” to keep away two-wheeler riders from the footpath.
As she waited for the bus, she noticed two men on a motorcycle proceeding on the pavement. They were blocked by her design. Unperturbed, the two men started clearing the objects. Thomas confronted them. They asked her if the road belonged to her father. She met the typical question with an imaginative reply: “No, it belongs to my mother, Bharat Mata!”
The two men were stunned. They thought it better to merge into the sea of vehicles on the road.
Thomas' fame has caused a bit of inconvenience for her. Worried about a backlash, her colleagues refused to let her walk the stretch. They hired a cab to drop her home for three days.
Thomas wants the authorities to cancel the driving license of the people found riding on the pavement. She is the daughter of Thandasseril Thomas and Gracy from Thiruvanchoor.
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