Mera Desh Mahan” (My Country is Great), is what the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi used to say – and politicians continue to chant that line. Just to put in a short disclaimer before I go any further: Even though I’m going to take a dig at my fellow countrymen, believe me, I love my country. Perhaps that’s why I feel so strongly about this! If we’re honest with ourselves, we’ll be forced to agree that we are, in fact, a nation of complete morons when it comes to road sense. And, as painful as this is for me to admit, these morons seem to grow in numbers everyday. A few days ago, I was driving down to Dehradun and came across any number of these people on the road – most of whom forced me to take serious evasive measures to avoid having a major accident. At Muzaffarnagar, two such ‘smart’ guys on a bike came in the wrong direction – forcing me to slam on the brakes. To my surprise, one of the riders had the audacity to tell me, albeit very politely, that I should have applied the brakes well in advance since I should have seen him coming on the wrong side of the road. I was dumbfounded, and watched as the duo continued riding in the opposite direction without a care in the world. Harvest season in north India is a dicey time to be on the highway. It’s hugely frustrating and dangerous, especially when you get stuck behind one of those numerous overloaded trailers pulled by tractors. These tractors don’t have any tail lamps or rear view mirrors and they move at their own sweet pace. You can’t see a thing beyond the huge stack of hay, and have to take your chances while overtaking them – especially on single lane stretches. For all you know, there just might be another such tractor coming right at you when you’re in the middle of overtaking the one ahead of you. While the villagers are, by and large, ignorant about traffic laws, it’s the inflated egos of the city folks that is most irritating. On a number of occasions, we were stuck in a narrow lane and the driver of a bigger vehicle, normally an SUV, would just refuse to reverse – even a little bit. He felt it would be an insult to his ego, or manhood, if he had to reverse and let a smaller car by. Grow up man! The pedestrians, of course, prefer to cross the road rather than use subways and footbridges. It doesn’t matter to them if there’s a crossing or not, as they simply put up their hands and expect a vehicle travelling at 70-80km/h to stop in time. Some drivers resort to panic braking, and, more often than not, get bumped from behind. Unfortunately, it’s also inevitable for some pedestrians to get fatally wounded in this unnecessary game of cat and mouse. Let’s not forget the drivers who are always in a tearing hurry either. I’m pleading to know why you won’t just stop and let another driver make a U-turn on a narrow road. Do you really have to attempt to get past the car from behind, as it’s furiously attempting to turn around? Well, at least our road users are democratic – motorcyclists, three-wheelers, cars, busses, and trucks – they each take their turn to be the cause of massive traffic jams. Why can’t we behave a little more rationally? Why can’t we follow basic traffic rules, which will serve everybody’s purpose? Reversing your big expensive SUV to let a small car pass does not mean a loss of face. It only means that we can all reach our respective destinations much faster and in a better frame of mind.
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