The way we drive!
Prasad (from Malacca) sent me an article as a primer to driving in Bengaluru! Supposedly by a Dutchman, very apt, it is a mixture of humor and desperation! However right, I still hate a phirangi ridiculing India and I needed to justify the mayhem and chaos on our roads! I could always blame the British or state vehemently 'we are Indians and that is how we are!'
At the same time, having lived overseas and seen a more courteous behavior of drivers, I know that there is something amiss. For instance, just a few days ago, as I looked down from my balcony, I noticed that a lady driver slowed down to park, probably without signals, and the fellow behind her car kept leaning on the horn to show his annoyance. He kept at it till the lady parked her car and he could move on! In fact, he was at it even as he passed her! This is unacceptable behavior in any part of the civilized world. I was shocked even more when I realised that he looked to be a normal type of guy!
Yesterday was scary, as I turned into the main road under the railway bridge I was shocked out of my wits by a young father with his daughter on the rear seat coming down nonchalantly on the wrong side of the road! I still get goose pimples when I think of the risk this man takes obviously every day! Then there was this young cyclist who suddenly decided to move from right to left right in front of me and surely god was kind to us at that moment!
Then there was this scooter rider who cut in front of my car, a normal occurrence, but in this case he took a wider turn than I had anticipated and I had to really brake hard! The reason he was not able to turn sharply was that he had stored material between the seat and the handle and his turning was restricted because of this.
My first reaction was that there is no hope! I keep talking about my daily dose of shocks with Raghu. His trite comment was 'we have a genetic flaw!' It is not that he just picked up a fashionable word. When he speaks about 'genetic flaws' its implications are far more serious!
While I hope to write more about his assessment of us Indians, let me dwell on what the Dutchman said:
He has many things to say, but I begin with the truck, which I guess has caused maximum number of deaths and harm on the roads. (It could be that buses, transport and tourist, may lay equal claim on the deaths caused on the roads.)
"Night driving on Indian roads is like playing Russian roulette, because you do not know who amongst the drivers is loaded with liquor. a truck attempting a speed record. Our roads do not have shoulders, but occasional boulders. Do not blink your lights expecting reciprocation. his total cerebral functions add up to little more than a naught. Truck drivers are licensed to kill. Often you may encounter a single powerful beam of light about six feet above the ground, a truck approaching you with a single light on, usually the left one. It could be the right one, but never get too close to investigate. on the trunk roads. During the daytime, trucks are more visible, except that the drivers will never show any signal."
While it may appear that the truck driver, he definitely is one of them, is the villain of the piece, there are many more! I have yet to inspect the new trucks and buses, but I know that earlier ones were the shoddiest of vehicles that I had the misfortune to ride on. The steering was so hard, there was no way a truck driver would go on the (non-existent) shoulders of the narrow roads and if he did, would probably have caused more accidents! I consider that the manufacturers and those who make, inspect and approve such terrible roads as the other villains! (It is claimed that things have improved!)
The owners of the vehicles who would not maintain the vehicles, not even give the drivers a set of spare bulbs, are also in this category. Their argument would be the drivers steal, bulbs do not last and so on! How many times do we read that a speeding vehicle(!) rammed into a parked truck in the night as there were no lights and many were killed!
If you probe deeper, the owners would claim that there are other expenses. I remember that the drivers of commercial vehicles would carry cash to distribute along the way. Not that they were innocent victims, the trucks were usually overloaded. Obviously the brakes would not respond to the extra load and would fail and kill innocent pedestrians! I am not sure if there are any statistics on the number of deaths caused by burst tyres!
So it is clear that there are many more who are guilty than just the inebriated, uneducated truck drivers for the many for deaths on the road and we choose to turn a blind eye!
Here are the links to many stories on the way we drive!
http://www.mizozo.com/weird/07/2009/20/driving-in-india-a-hilarious-account-by-a-dutchman.html
http://www.insideline.com/features/driving-test-indian-style.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/spirituality/speaking-tree/Driving-as-a-spiritual-exercise-/articleshow/4460502.cms
At the same time, having lived overseas and seen a more courteous behavior of drivers, I know that there is something amiss. For instance, just a few days ago, as I looked down from my balcony, I noticed that a lady driver slowed down to park, probably without signals, and the fellow behind her car kept leaning on the horn to show his annoyance. He kept at it till the lady parked her car and he could move on! In fact, he was at it even as he passed her! This is unacceptable behavior in any part of the civilized world. I was shocked even more when I realised that he looked to be a normal type of guy!
Yesterday was scary, as I turned into the main road under the railway bridge I was shocked out of my wits by a young father with his daughter on the rear seat coming down nonchalantly on the wrong side of the road! I still get goose pimples when I think of the risk this man takes obviously every day! Then there was this young cyclist who suddenly decided to move from right to left right in front of me and surely god was kind to us at that moment!
Then there was this scooter rider who cut in front of my car, a normal occurrence, but in this case he took a wider turn than I had anticipated and I had to really brake hard! The reason he was not able to turn sharply was that he had stored material between the seat and the handle and his turning was restricted because of this.
My first reaction was that there is no hope! I keep talking about my daily dose of shocks with Raghu. His trite comment was 'we have a genetic flaw!' It is not that he just picked up a fashionable word. When he speaks about 'genetic flaws' its implications are far more serious!
While I hope to write more about his assessment of us Indians, let me dwell on what the Dutchman said:
He has many things to say, but I begin with the truck, which I guess has caused maximum number of deaths and harm on the roads. (It could be that buses, transport and tourist, may lay equal claim on the deaths caused on the roads.)
"Night driving on Indian roads is like playing Russian roulette, because you do not know who amongst the drivers is loaded with liquor. a truck attempting a speed record. Our roads do not have shoulders, but occasional boulders. Do not blink your lights expecting reciprocation. his total cerebral functions add up to little more than a naught. Truck drivers are licensed to kill. Often you may encounter a single powerful beam of light about six feet above the ground, a truck approaching you with a single light on, usually the left one. It could be the right one, but never get too close to investigate. on the trunk roads. During the daytime, trucks are more visible, except that the drivers will never show any signal."
While it may appear that the truck driver, he definitely is one of them, is the villain of the piece, there are many more! I have yet to inspect the new trucks and buses, but I know that earlier ones were the shoddiest of vehicles that I had the misfortune to ride on. The steering was so hard, there was no way a truck driver would go on the (non-existent) shoulders of the narrow roads and if he did, would probably have caused more accidents! I consider that the manufacturers and those who make, inspect and approve such terrible roads as the other villains! (It is claimed that things have improved!)
The owners of the vehicles who would not maintain the vehicles, not even give the drivers a set of spare bulbs, are also in this category. Their argument would be the drivers steal, bulbs do not last and so on! How many times do we read that a speeding vehicle(!) rammed into a parked truck in the night as there were no lights and many were killed!
If you probe deeper, the owners would claim that there are other expenses. I remember that the drivers of commercial vehicles would carry cash to distribute along the way. Not that they were innocent victims, the trucks were usually overloaded. Obviously the brakes would not respond to the extra load and would fail and kill innocent pedestrians! I am not sure if there are any statistics on the number of deaths caused by burst tyres!
So it is clear that there are many more who are guilty than just the inebriated, uneducated truck drivers for the many for deaths on the road and we choose to turn a blind eye!
Here are the links to many stories on the way we drive!
http://www.mizozo.com/weird/07/2009/20/driving-in-india-a-hilarious-account-by-a-dutchman.html
http://www.insideline.com/features/driving-test-indian-style.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/spirituality/speaking-tree/Driving-as-a-spiritual-exercise-/articleshow/4460502.cms
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