While I take a break #102 - Dummies guide to brilliant driving
There has been a silver lining too... you know to me having taken this unprecedented break from work. I kind of ticked off a couple of items off my bucket list. From my non-existent bucket list. To think of it, I have never made a bucket list - is there nothing I wish to achieve? No impossible dreams that I want becoming possible? Oh well, that's some food for thought and maybe for another blogairy. That's a Blog Diary. And I just came up with it. Is there already someone else who's coined this word? Google doesn't seem to suggest so. Is my genius beginning to finally shine? Though in all honesty, its not really an ingenious word - this is a blog and a personal diary too - wola! Thats a blogiary! Genius.
But I digress. I started with the silver linings of my break time. I've already made a big deal of the biggest achievement of it all on Facebook, my primary social life - I finally learnt driving. I mean, of course its because of automatic cars and that I had to fire my driver coz I couldn't/ didn't want to afford him anymore. And the car standing idle downstairs would have been a colossal waste of a resource. So I kind of almost got pushed into it but boy! do I feel good or what.
Its the feel good of finally being self reliant. Before i got the car, it was dependency on Uber-Ola. Before that was autos. And before that was hoping/ depending on someone to pick me up and drop me. Which honestly stopped ever since i turned 30 anyway. Those are privileges reserved for the young and woo-able ;)
But driving has made me realize some bitter truths about our road etiquette and I needed to share those.
Realization #1 - Beware of the most dangerous of them all - autos. They are THE MOST unpredictable trouble makers. Of course they own the roads and feel no need to follow any traffic rules. But what makes them exceptionally dangerous are their right and left indicators. For starters, you can be rest assured that whatever indicator they have put on, they MUST be intending the opposite direction. You are left guessing, fingers crossed that you don't hit the auto if you are unlucky enough to be trailing one. And on Indian roads, you are ALWAYS trailing autos. Always. The other bit of course is that they will drive right in the middle of the road at like 30 kmh speed so that you can neither overtake nor go faster than them. But when they want to overtake, left, right, centre - they just go in all directions. They remind me of cockroaches, whizzing, buzzing, zooming all over the road cockroaches and your driving sense is judged my how many you dodged.
Realization #2 - Pedestrians OWN the roads - Its insane. Like you're driving on a narrow lane and pedestrians chose to walk anywhere they please. You honk. THEY DO NOT LISTEN. THEY DO NOT BUDGE. Its almost like a challenge thrown at us car-owning-criminals - hit them with your car and pay the price for it, we dare you, kind of thing. Its almost like we know you cant touch us coz even though it was our fault, it will be your fault coz you're privileged enough to own a car. I mean it takes just a tiny-weeny effort to get to the side of the road or on that rarely used asset called the footpath - but no, they will walk anywhere they please and NOT move even if you honk. Like they are reminding us that we may have a car, THEY OWN THE ROADS, so don't mess. We get it. And we're sorry.
Realization #3 - Lane discipline, how lame is that? I remember from my younger kinetic honda riding days, it was told to us that if you're turning right or left into a different direction, follow the lane to the right or left and let the people going straight go straight. Its probably as forgotten as pre-liberalization times by the new gen. Its crazy. There are occasions when I have to go straight and there are 4 lanes of vehicles stacked up in front of me, wanting to all go right, leaving us NO place to drive out straight. Like what is that. And guess who's leading the stack pack - autos, you bet.
Realization #4 - turn deaf, the only way to exist - for this one, I didn't really have to learn driving. Its the quintessential honking. Honk nahin kiya, toh kya kiya? Whats the deal with that though? You could be at a signal, people honk. You could be in a jam, people honk, You could be on an empty road, people honk. Its like some power trip. "My honking is louder than yours Yo!". Or maybe its our imagination that my only purpose of the day has been to get on to the roads and block YOUR way, like on purpose. And your honking is going to dissuade me from that purpose? What else can justify the mindless honking? Honking at pedestrians I get, when they wont move. But honking at all others times, for the sake of honking - that I don't get, just like I don't get the jat boys and their bicep complex.
So anyway, i'm a reasonably seasoned driver now. Or so I think. Maybe I will get my qualification degree the day I become ok with the above 4 realizations. That seems a long long long way to go then. Will i never be a good enough driver for our roads then? Dang!
But I digress. I started with the silver linings of my break time. I've already made a big deal of the biggest achievement of it all on Facebook, my primary social life - I finally learnt driving. I mean, of course its because of automatic cars and that I had to fire my driver coz I couldn't/ didn't want to afford him anymore. And the car standing idle downstairs would have been a colossal waste of a resource. So I kind of almost got pushed into it but boy! do I feel good or what.
Its the feel good of finally being self reliant. Before i got the car, it was dependency on Uber-Ola. Before that was autos. And before that was hoping/ depending on someone to pick me up and drop me. Which honestly stopped ever since i turned 30 anyway. Those are privileges reserved for the young and woo-able ;)
But driving has made me realize some bitter truths about our road etiquette and I needed to share those.
Realization #1 - Beware of the most dangerous of them all - autos. They are THE MOST unpredictable trouble makers. Of course they own the roads and feel no need to follow any traffic rules. But what makes them exceptionally dangerous are their right and left indicators. For starters, you can be rest assured that whatever indicator they have put on, they MUST be intending the opposite direction. You are left guessing, fingers crossed that you don't hit the auto if you are unlucky enough to be trailing one. And on Indian roads, you are ALWAYS trailing autos. Always. The other bit of course is that they will drive right in the middle of the road at like 30 kmh speed so that you can neither overtake nor go faster than them. But when they want to overtake, left, right, centre - they just go in all directions. They remind me of cockroaches, whizzing, buzzing, zooming all over the road cockroaches and your driving sense is judged my how many you dodged.
Realization #2 - Pedestrians OWN the roads - Its insane. Like you're driving on a narrow lane and pedestrians chose to walk anywhere they please. You honk. THEY DO NOT LISTEN. THEY DO NOT BUDGE. Its almost like a challenge thrown at us car-owning-criminals - hit them with your car and pay the price for it, we dare you, kind of thing. Its almost like we know you cant touch us coz even though it was our fault, it will be your fault coz you're privileged enough to own a car. I mean it takes just a tiny-weeny effort to get to the side of the road or on that rarely used asset called the footpath - but no, they will walk anywhere they please and NOT move even if you honk. Like they are reminding us that we may have a car, THEY OWN THE ROADS, so don't mess. We get it. And we're sorry.
Realization #3 - Lane discipline, how lame is that? I remember from my younger kinetic honda riding days, it was told to us that if you're turning right or left into a different direction, follow the lane to the right or left and let the people going straight go straight. Its probably as forgotten as pre-liberalization times by the new gen. Its crazy. There are occasions when I have to go straight and there are 4 lanes of vehicles stacked up in front of me, wanting to all go right, leaving us NO place to drive out straight. Like what is that. And guess who's leading the stack pack - autos, you bet.
Realization #4 - turn deaf, the only way to exist - for this one, I didn't really have to learn driving. Its the quintessential honking. Honk nahin kiya, toh kya kiya? Whats the deal with that though? You could be at a signal, people honk. You could be in a jam, people honk, You could be on an empty road, people honk. Its like some power trip. "My honking is louder than yours Yo!". Or maybe its our imagination that my only purpose of the day has been to get on to the roads and block YOUR way, like on purpose. And your honking is going to dissuade me from that purpose? What else can justify the mindless honking? Honking at pedestrians I get, when they wont move. But honking at all others times, for the sake of honking - that I don't get, just like I don't get the jat boys and their bicep complex.
So anyway, i'm a reasonably seasoned driver now. Or so I think. Maybe I will get my qualification degree the day I become ok with the above 4 realizations. That seems a long long long way to go then. Will i never be a good enough driver for our roads then? Dang!
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