No price for advice.

An interesting advertisement of a leading telecom company has got me thinking that 'advise to har koi karta hain yaar'.
Most of the time this is useless advice by virtue of it being either unwarranted, or coming too late. It is just not over there.
You have hell to pay when you have to face the person whose advice you did not pay heed to.

A predicament I faced recently had to do with some advice that I received from someone who had a self-conferred authority.
Just the other day, I was stuck in traffic on a narrow yet two way traffic road. All vehicles were making a criss cross on the road as if forming a complicated puzzle and speaking the language of honks, while the drivers uttered abuses. After all, everyone is in a hurry in our country. So while I was waiting behind a car, a rickshaw driver steers his auto on to my right and starts showering me with advice. He was hell bent on making me take a deviation and get moving.
How did he want me to do that? By performing the remarkable feat of climbing up the pedestrian sidewalk and riding my 100cc two wheeler on it.

Why? Simply because he felt like advising me. Neither was I in a hurry, nor was I in any mood for a automobile gymnastic feat. I was not even in front of him,
My treading the platform on my bike along with my pillion rider would in no way hinder or benefit him or anything on the road. Yet, he was determined to get me over the footpath!

It was not one of those edges where the platform boundaries form a slide like at building entrances. This is usually where two wheeler drivers hop onto the sidewalk and start driving on them. The place I was waiting was not one of those places, it was one where the platform was at steep height of a good 15 cm steep height from the road. It is bad enough that some dumb people ride their bikes on it at their own risk, as per their will, but why force someone else to do the same? It is dangerous, unwanted and do not even get me started on the legal aspect. But no, my advisor was determined.

First it started with general a mention that I should go on the foot path, then it became a request. Before I could comprehend the absurdity that he was expecting of me, it had turned into a command and I was ordered to do what his over-ambitions mind was dictating. I did what I do best in these situations- ignore unwarranted detractions. The consequence of that was just round the corner - sour grapes dove in. His comments did not stop at my ignorance. It turned to innuendoes 'Ah forget it, you can't do it, You're not capable of that! Bah'
Sheeesh.
I had half a mind to turn around and ask him what his real problem was? Was he running short on his 'advise strangers' target for the day? Was he a lonely insomniac who drove around advising people? Would he not sleep at night if i do not climb the platform? Or is he just one of those people who fulfill their whims and fancies by asking others to do it....
I'll never know, cos i never asked. But what i do know is that there is no end to free advice.