The Road Rules

(In India, Drive the Indian way!)

“Another not so pleasant driving experience” is something that happens to me almost every day while driving from home to office and back. So much has been the frequency that these experiences have changed from being irritating to “not so pleasant” and will be “its normal” soon.

However, I am hereby introducing some regulars on the road who have made my driving experience exactly what it is turning out to be. (For those who have been driving for long, I know all this is already “normal”.)

  · The new Aunties
     Hey! No I am not a sexist; it is just for those “aunty driving a car” jokes. Long gone is the time when L stood for lady because, we have plenty of uncles doing rounds here. In the overconfidence that they are natural drivers, they have been hitting the road barriers and people more; turning suddenly without even giving an indicator or that hand movement

  · The Macho
     The newly grown Macho is on the road,
creating havoc for all those who ever
thought that driving was a serious matter. The impossible Bike horns (viz screeching tyres, barking dogs and dhoom machale) make recognising the vehicle near a puzzle. And how can I forget the “zoom” sound they make while they take their bikes between two other vehicles driving close.

  · The “My Girl” Dudes
     These are the ones who turn deaf the moment the girl is sitting behind or with them. You keep honking like crazy asking them to give the way to overtake but NO! Poor beings can’t hear you. Off course they have their sweet talking sugar pies singing in their ears. Why would they then listen to the  jarring horn?

  · The Lance Armstrongs
     The cyclists on the road; well actually they step out of their house with a determination to lead as my cars/ scooters as possible. They can suddenly come into view and if you happen to even touch them, you are banged!

  · The Country People
    They are the ones with their buffalos or
 cows doing rounds on the road unattended and Mind it! Their securities is your concern and not of the owner.

  · The Road Runners
   They are the ones who can cross the.      road anywhere and anytime, sometimes even jumping off your car’s bonnet. Even if you slow down on a speed breaker, these runners have their pass.

  · The Trucks
     These are not the vehicles but the people driving them. Scariest of all, they can throw you up in the air anytime and anywhere regardless of the safety measures you take. (I once had a near miss while standing on  the waiting stop!)

  · The Snoop Dogs
     These are the ones who turn the traffic jams from worse to worst because, they can’t help “ghusaoing” their vehicles into the already congested traffic.

  · The Hapless
     It is people like you and me, who are
     reading this blog and thinking; yeah so
     true!

So, friends this is how driving on roads is. We are the people who wear helmets just to save that money we would have to give as “challan”, we cause traffic jams just to fight over the slight dent which is definitely not going to be paid for. We
are the ones for whom mobiles can’t be put off even while driving because money is of more value than life. We are the ones who speed past girls to scare them and have our moment of thrill.

Do we really take driving as a responsibility?

We do not have roads like America but then, we do not have Americans driving too!!

Think about it!