Stuck in traffic? Listen to your elders and be patient

Filmmaker Zeeshan Parwez’s animated ‘sage’ offers advice in hopes of alleviating the city’s traffic woes

PESHAWAR: “Our elders have always said the fruit of patience is sweet,” says Sabir Lala, a bespectacled vaguely middle-aged animated character. “It is time to remind you what happens when you don’t agree with this.”

From business to entertainment, it is no secret that the meteoric advancement of social media and other digital technologies has permanently changed how we live our lives. Nowhere is this truer these than activism. In the age of hashtags and memes, Pakistan has seen its share of viral activism, Karachi’s #Fixit campaign being one example.

Now notable Peshawar-based filmmaker and music producer Zeeshan Parwez is looking to leverage the viral potential of animation and take a crack at tackling the civic problems of his hometown and province beginning with traffic.

In the minute-and-a-half-long animated clip he has produced, Parwez uses the character of Sabir Lala to illustrate to his audience how at least some of their civic woes can be resolved by simply listening to the wisdom of their elders. The short video also touches upon some of the infrastructure issues that lead to congested traffic.

“At least 90% of the roads here [in Peshawar] are two-way,” notes Sabir Lala. “But we don’t know that as we can’t see any white stripes in the middle of the road… probably because the roads are too dirty or the contractor didn’t do a good job.”

But turning the problem back at the viewer, Sabir points to ‘the one guy who can never wait’ as the root of the problem. The clip shows this impatient character – described by his inner voice as a ‘son of a lunatic’ – blast off in the opposite lane, inevitably triggering a jam.

“Because of this clown, a five-minute wait turns into 40 minutes,” stresses Sabir Lala. “Don’t be this guy… be patient,” he implores.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Parwez said his aim while coming up with the clip was to show people how a small mistake on their part can cost fellow citizens hours of their time, not to mention peace of mind. “The message I wanted to get across was that a little impatience is all it takes to turn a five-minute wait into one that is hours long,” he said.

Explaining his novel approach to civic activism, Parwez said chose to get his message across in animated form due to the rapid growth social media and other associated technologies have seen in recent times.

“We are in the age of digitisation. Social media, especially, allows a message to reach people in mere seconds,” he said. “Others have produced short animated clips which went viral so we wanted to tap into that potential.”

“Already, the animated short we spent three months working on, has been appreciated and shared on Twitter, Facebook and Whatsapp, even at the government level,” Parwez said. “We have received a very encouraging response from ministers and traffic officials,” he added.

He has won one fan, at least, in SSP Traffic Peshawar Kashif Zulfiqar. “We highly appreciate this action from Zeeshan Parwez. This really comes as a pleasant surprise,” he told The Express Tribune. “It is very smart to take advantage of different technologies to raise awareness among people,” he said.

So is this the end for Sabir Lala? Not even close, according to the Peshawar-based filmmaker. Think of this as a pilot, he said. “We want to use Sabir Lala to convey many more messages and raise awareness about other civic problems people face.”

A snapshot of the problem

As many as 700,000 vehicles travel to and from Peshawar every day, according to SSP Traffic Zulfiqar. Of these, 70,000 are rickshaws and 50,000 are public transport vehicles, taxis and cars used by ride-sharing apps. These, combined with the 20,000 motorcycles on road in Peshawar make controlling traffic in the city a daunting task, Zulfiqar said.

“Whenever a road gets jammed, it is true every drivers tries to look for shortcuts out of it,” said rickshaw driver Naseer Khan. “Sometimes, this results in someone going the wrong way on the road, which in turn leads to a traffic jam,” he said, admitting that lack of patience was a root cause. “In the end, a three to four minute commute turns into one that’s an hour long.”

“The situation is so bad we have to leave our homes half an hour early. Even a small distance takes hours now. There is more traffic on GT Road, Khyber Market, University Road and Saddar,” said Saddar resident Kulsoom Bibi. She attributed the traffic woes to Peshawar’s growing population. Kulsoom also requested the government to install safety cones to demarcate lanes is painted on stripes take too much time or resources.