My grandfather always told me stories about different obstacles he had to face in order to get education. "Those were difficult times," he’d say. "There were no proper roads to schools and colleges, we had to walk for miles, cross a wide bridgeless canal and bushy or muddy path to reach our school." And, finally, he would conclude with "you have no idea how happy I am for you kids! You have no such issues to face."

I bet he wouldn’t feel the same way if he would see me trying to get to my educational institution these days.

Big hurdles, small hurdles, heavy hurdles, light hurdles, every kind of hurdles. No, this is not a self-created guff poem; it’s the road map to my university, the famous Kinnaird College for Women and plenty of others like Government APWA College, Lahore College University for Women, APWA Degree College and Scholars College of Commerce who are situated on the current unfortunate location of ‘Jail Road’.

Jail Road nowadays seems like the set of the film Transformers. Huge machineries like those in the movie are seen working on the roads, the largest one depicting the picture of Megatron who is a cold and heartless leader with huge drill, others too resembling Ironhead, Optimus Prime and Scorpnok. And, then there is a little machinery resembling the jazz, frenzy and bumblebee.

Although the sight does not give us the feeling of entertainment we get while seeing the movie, it’s quite the opposite to be honest.

I remember our golden days when we could drive on the smooth roads leading us to our colleges and universities. Now all we can do while being stuck in the mass of inactive vehicles under blazing sun and 40 degree Celsius of heat is to wait for the ‘diamond days’ that are to come once the construction will be completed.

Right now I am having some literally sunniest and metaphorically darkest days because earlier this week, after driving around the roads for double the usual time, using alternate ways, driving over gravels, dodging furious drivers, avoiding bumping into others, shouting and being shouted at and getting my car covered in utter dust, when I finally got to my destination, a surprise awaited me -- the service lane of Kinnaird College had also been knocked down in the process of the road widening project.

Now since there is no service lane, the usual temporary parking spot for cars outside the college no longer exists and it leads to nothing but more traffic chaos in the area.

Things are decent once you are safe and sound inside the college premises but as soon as the off timing begins, the chaos starts all over again and this time with more pressure.

There is a sea of students rushing out and an even bigger sea of cars that emerge outside of the college, most of them to pick up the students.

Due to the removal of the service lane, there is no proper path for the cars to follow and it creates disturbance. The situation is worse for students who take public transportation as buses are usually very late and the rickshaw drivers ask for higher fares as the roads are under construction.

There is always a lot of traffic in the front of KC. Getting late for class is inevitable. The situation has also raised some security issues since a lot of fellow students claim they now feel more vulnerable as there is no service lane or additional wall to stop strangers from getting nearer to the college premises.

But I don’t think it will be fair to blame the administration only since a lot of responsibility lies with the public as well. Our people generally have a ‘rebellious’ approach towards most things. For instance, we find people throwing litter at places. Similar is the approach to plucking flowers and speed limits.

A lot of application of this mind-set is also seen around the college where the people are disobeying traffic wardens and parking cars at places that clearly state ‘No parking,’ leading to more traffic disturbance and finally affecting us students.

The situation could have been a lot better if people would follow the indicated rules and not take advantage of the fact that most barriers and traffic signs on the roads are removed due to construction.

Due to the construction material and mud, there is always dust in the air which, by combining with the usual humid weather, causes a great deal of nuisance. The circumstances are worse for girls who have to wait outside for buses and here I am, not only talking about KC students but those studying in different colleges on Jail Road.