Buddhi GautamCan a truck stand on two wheels? Normally, it can’t. It’s not cracked up to - that’s why it’s equipped with four or more wheels. Man has two legs.

He walks or stands on two legs. No one in his or her right mind would think of walking or standing on only one leg as long as he or she has two healthy legs. Ditto in case of a truck: it’s absurd to imagine it standing on two wheels. It can not happen even as exception. Just can’t!

Interestingly, our highways offer an exception. Some time back, I saw a heavy truck standing on two wheels…at the end of a monstrous traffic jam.

Good grief! It was so overloaded that on a slightly steep portion of the road, its ‘tail-side’ weight had lifted its ‘head’ - mind it, along with the driver. Should have been an uplifting experience!

Trucks, like buses, cars and jeeps, ply on the roads. After all, they are not meant to fly! But the truck in question nearly flew, like a plane.

The moment the front wheels ‘left’ the road, the driver had the impression of being a pilot and of flying a truck.

Amazing! The truck was taking off. Else, why else would its ‘front wheels’ lose contact with the ground? All the same, the truck somehow failed to take off; there was a glitch.

The moment its front wheels lost contact with the ground, its hind-wheels had to bear its entire weight; it stood on them.

Footsore and dog-tired, the truck looked hell-bent to take a long rest. Its counterparts behind and in front could do nothing but wait and see its wake from the slumber.

Some blew ear-splitting ‘bells’ to wake it up but it didn’t budge an inch. Looked like it was still wondering how to take off…

Guessing what the truck was loaded with is just duck soup: buffaloes, of course! Goats, for instance, could have never upset the heavy truck.

They are too light to overturn its monstrous weight. But these were buffaloes, perhaps the heaviest animals after elephants in this part of the world.

Prior to the disastrous tilt of the truck, the panicky buffaloes had slipped on their own dung towards the tail-end inside the truck, on a steep road: hence, the imbalance.