Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Two sides of the same road

An incident happened.

After reaching Trivandrum airport from Mumbai, I was travelling towards my native home in a cab. At one of the crossroads, a car was trying to enter our lane. We, on our part, maintained the speed of our car. You know how it normally ends, right? Both the cars applied sudden brakes, drivers stare at each other, some choice words spoken, hand movements from the window and life moves on as if nothing happened! Then comes the "justification phase" of what happened to the co-passengers. How our driver saved us from eternal doom, reasons why the other driver was at fault, how is our driver's driving perfect, blah blah..

But what we normally miss is the other side of the story. The above mentioned story is a fact and now's its time to introduce some fiction.
Image: Kind courtesy  http://www.clker.com/
Story from our driver's standpoint:
This is the state of driving in our country. No one cares about others. Did you see what happened? We were driving straight, I even flashed the headlights for him to stop. He still had to poke his car's nose in our lane. He could've waited right? I have always maintained steady speed. I never drive fast. I am sure you have observed my driving skills. I care for the people who travel with me. Unlike the driver in the other car. Reckless driving! It's a rule, the preference always goes to the driver who's driving on a straight lane. How will he know the rule, he might have got his licence without the test. We have rules defined for safety of all the travellers. But who follows them now-a-days? It always happens in India. Look at the 'foreign' country, there are rules and there are punishments for breaking the rules... I blame my country for this. Blah.. Blah..

Story from the other driver's standpoint:
Did you see how reckless people are when it comes to driving? He was still far away from the crossroad. He could've slowed down. But did he? No! I even pressed the horn to indicate I am entering his lane. But what did he do in response? Nothing! How will I ever come to know that he wants me to stop. Thank God I had the common sense to avoid an accident. Otherwise we all would have been dead by now! It's only because of you guys that I didn't go and fight with him. I don't want you people to be late. You know, we have rules defined for safety of all the travellers. But who follows them now-a-days? It always happens in India. Look at the 'foreign' country, there are rules and there are punishments for breaking the rules... I blame my country for this. Blah.. Blah..

India's response: Yeah right. Blame me!

Moral of both the stories: We are always right, no matter what other say.

PS: This definitely is not location specific. This happens everywhere in our country. The only difference is the language of choice words used and hand gestures based on urban-rural divide.

23 comments:

  1. Oh tell me about it..! Agree it happens not just in Trivandrum :D And while driving we are always right.( Not just in driving we will come to that later). Once in a traffic jam an autodriver tried to make matters worse by sticking his damn auto into the space near our car, thus leaving the situation in a dead lock. Papa, watching these antics got out of the car , opened the other side of the car's door and gestured him the front seat and told him ' Ivide kurachu sthalam undu...nee ee auto ingottu ketti idu'...which left the people there in splits and the autodriver red faced (Finally he also joined in the laugh riot) :D

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    1. That was awesome Anita! Your dad sure has a fantastic sense of humor :) For those who didn't understand what Anita wrote in Malayalam, this is what it means - "There's some space here, kindly park your auto inside the car".. :D

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    2. hahaha indeed, that was awesome. Humor in these tense situations can solve all the problems!

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  2. Binu, I am the first driver. For starters I would never enter a lane if I am not coming from the main road. I have to wait till the other car passes before I poke into the road :-)

    And second, LOL on the 'justification phase' to the co passengers! I so do that (even if I may not have been entirely right ;-))

    And then ofocurse, if there is noone there is Mr India to blame. Its terrible I know, but only if we had a little bit more of patience.

    and PS: the road is always bad to women drivers, even they are actually good , like me :-)

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    1. Include me in the first driver's list too. And I am also a part of the self-appraising driver.. I am always right when I am driving :D

      Yes, you are right regarding women drivers.. There's a pre-conceived notion and I am sure you are aware of it... That's bad too..

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  3. LOL Awesome So true :D I am always right and everybody else is wrong is our policy :D on road :D very well written both the sides:D dialogues are so perfect ;) that I started doubting that you have over heard my conversation :D after doing such mistake :D Binu lol :D

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    1. We are always right, aren't we Ramya? Actually, that driver inspired me to write this post.. He was defending himself for almost 1/2 hr (1/3 of our journey)..

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  4. What can I say.. I too have committed this offense :P

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  5. oh this is so not location specific... ive seen amazing hilarious justifications, amazing brilliant ones and also amazingly scary ones !!

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    1. Yes Doctor. I am sure there are incidents and justifications that are just out of this world.. We are born for preparing excuses and justifying our stand so as to ensure we are not the guilty party..

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  6. Well I have first hand experience with drivers, as I had three accidents in my life. Now the blame game is fun. We are actually lucky as we blame our country for everything. Thank God you were not hurt.

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    1. Saru, we blame our country because our country cannot defend herself against each and every citizen all the time :D That's how much we blame our country..

      I have had a couple of accidents in life, one of which was very scary. If not for the helmet, situation would've been much different now.. And this time it was a sudden brake situation but not an accident..

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  7. I am so accident prone i tell you so i have a lot of reasons and its always the other drivers fault .. :)

    glad you are fine and all is ok

    Bikram's

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    1. It is always! I am glad everyone accepts it :D I am fine Bikram, nothing happened to me.. Just a sudden brake scenario..

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  8. Remarkable issues here. I’m very satisfied to peer your article. Thank you so much and I amhaving a look forward to touch you. Will you please drop me a mail?

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    1. Thanks Buddy for dropping by. Hope you like what you read. We can touch base in case you want to discuss something. My email ID is shared in my profile..

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  9. I wonder why is it so tough for us to just accept our faults and mistakes, learn some lessons and move on. Blaming it on someone, thats really the easiest way we think is to get out of all of it. How sad the scenario is. Glad that it was just a break thing for you and nothing more.

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    1. Maybe it's human mentality not to accept the mistake in front of others. We know we have committed a mistake and will accept it personally, but maybe we don't want others to feel the same too. Ego, I guess.. But, its harmless ego.. :)

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  10. We never back down from a fight, do we? That's exactly the case here.. Accepting mistake is not in our genes..

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All yours..

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