Stop and Proceed

Driving on the roads of India surely is an adventure with everyone breaking every law that the noble RTO (Regional Transport Office for the ignorant) has set for the safety and security of its citizens. There is never a dull moment if you are the in the driver's seat or for that matter even in the side seat! Everytime you drive out, there is a traffic jam or someone cutting lanes or overtaking you from the left or honking their horn or driving towards you with high beam on their headlights or making sudden stops and turns..... Phew. As I said there is never a dull moment on Indian roads.

And we choose to add this frustrating act to the other frustrations that we face in our daily living. I always recall my father's sound advice for Indian roads, "You have to drive watching out not just for your actions but for others' actions as well!" Another adage I always have quoted for our city's drivers is that 'The drivers stuck in traffic jams are forever in a hurry of reaching nowhere great!' And there we sit in our cars imagining what it would be like if we were on the roads in Singapore or Malaysia or Europe.

The other day, I was sitting in the car imagining just that and all of a sudden I thought why not drive like as if I am on the roads of Singapore and Malaysia, Thailand and UK. The next thought that struck me was which one simple rule can I follow. I quickly narrowed in on this one: Stop and Proceed. It means while driving it is advisable to first stop the vehicle, ensure that others are comfortable and that it is safe and then proceed further. I went from one place in Mulund to the other. Many vehicles came in my way, many squeezed through lanes they should not have, many honked their horns when it was unnecessary. Frankly, it got on my nerves not to be able to retaliate with a cut or an overtake or a horn honk. But after a while, after the nerves had settled, I started to see the calm it brought me while driving.

Perhaps as a generation we have channelized our frustrations far too long into our vehicles wielding control over the only thing that goes the way we want it to. But I guess it is time to lower the dipper, stop honking, start driving well and just grow up!

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