Why are we so angry?
Delhi saw yet another horrific incident of road rage where by five men lynched one man to death. May be this blog will again initiate a long conversation as it did few months back on another piece on urban anger but I am so deeply worried about this incident and some others that have occurred in past one month that I cannot but write.
My better half use to travel to and fro from work on his bike some few years ago. One late night he was beaten up black and blue by an angry trucker who had himself parked the vehicle on the wrong side of the road. My husband tried to steer clear the vehicle from the only way available. The trucker jumped out from the left and packed some few punches initially on to my husband. The reason for this anger was probably the trucker was thousands of kilometers away from home and frustrated with his daily routine, and my husband was in the wrong place at the right time to be used as a sandbag. Anyway, he was bedridden for a week thereafter and joined back the millions of daily commuters soon after. But this incident remained entrenched in me and I still avoid few of these angry Delhi roads.
Only last month my friend in Hyderabad had a terrible experience when their car grazed ever so lightly on to a biker in the city. No harm was done in the incident to either the bike or the rider but nonetheless the biker got down and smashed the windshield thrice with his helmet while my friends were still seated on the wheel!. They were so shocked and and not prepared for the reaction and could not dislodge themselves from the wheel and sat frozen. The Hyderabad traffic is one of the worst in India where bender-fender driving is the norm and many have faced traffic traumas of various kinds. But sadly nobody wants to change things. Neither the commuters nor the authorities are in a frame of mind to alter the traffic scenario.
Delhi roads profess to be more saner as there is some amount of lane driving still prevalent in this town. But stand at a traffic light and watch the frustrations engulf you. All our deepest and ugliest selves loom large at a traffic light. The moment the light turns green and the vehicle right in the front takes more than one second to respond a barrage of swearing and honking ensues. Why, why, why? It takes few seconds for a vehicle to respond after all it is a piece of machinery. The daily frustrations we live with are so enormous that we would neither want to control it nor try to be civilised to the fellow commuters.
People like me who get around in autos (Delhi's own taxi service for the middle class) are always frustrated haggling with the drivers over the fare. I have come very close to physically harming someone but better judgement has prevailed on that day and have steered cleared from any escalations, but deep down inside have been scared at the thought of losing my better judgement for the regular altercations. Today I try and avoid all kinds of altercations with the auto drivers and keep trying to ignore any attempt to get into a tirade of bad mouthing. But this does not stop me from wondering why are we all who are living in urban metros so unhappy and frustrated always and put our worst foot forward on the roads. We are ready to let our rage out at the slightest provocation with or without a rhyme or reason. It's time traffic rules are made more stringent and heavy penalties levied so that somehow this growing urban rage on the roads do not take innocent lives.
My better half use to travel to and fro from work on his bike some few years ago. One late night he was beaten up black and blue by an angry trucker who had himself parked the vehicle on the wrong side of the road. My husband tried to steer clear the vehicle from the only way available. The trucker jumped out from the left and packed some few punches initially on to my husband. The reason for this anger was probably the trucker was thousands of kilometers away from home and frustrated with his daily routine, and my husband was in the wrong place at the right time to be used as a sandbag. Anyway, he was bedridden for a week thereafter and joined back the millions of daily commuters soon after. But this incident remained entrenched in me and I still avoid few of these angry Delhi roads.
Only last month my friend in Hyderabad had a terrible experience when their car grazed ever so lightly on to a biker in the city. No harm was done in the incident to either the bike or the rider but nonetheless the biker got down and smashed the windshield thrice with his helmet while my friends were still seated on the wheel!. They were so shocked and and not prepared for the reaction and could not dislodge themselves from the wheel and sat frozen. The Hyderabad traffic is one of the worst in India where bender-fender driving is the norm and many have faced traffic traumas of various kinds. But sadly nobody wants to change things. Neither the commuters nor the authorities are in a frame of mind to alter the traffic scenario.
Delhi roads profess to be more saner as there is some amount of lane driving still prevalent in this town. But stand at a traffic light and watch the frustrations engulf you. All our deepest and ugliest selves loom large at a traffic light. The moment the light turns green and the vehicle right in the front takes more than one second to respond a barrage of swearing and honking ensues. Why, why, why? It takes few seconds for a vehicle to respond after all it is a piece of machinery. The daily frustrations we live with are so enormous that we would neither want to control it nor try to be civilised to the fellow commuters.
People like me who get around in autos (Delhi's own taxi service for the middle class) are always frustrated haggling with the drivers over the fare. I have come very close to physically harming someone but better judgement has prevailed on that day and have steered cleared from any escalations, but deep down inside have been scared at the thought of losing my better judgement for the regular altercations. Today I try and avoid all kinds of altercations with the auto drivers and keep trying to ignore any attempt to get into a tirade of bad mouthing. But this does not stop me from wondering why are we all who are living in urban metros so unhappy and frustrated always and put our worst foot forward on the roads. We are ready to let our rage out at the slightest provocation with or without a rhyme or reason. It's time traffic rules are made more stringent and heavy penalties levied so that somehow this growing urban rage on the roads do not take innocent lives.
Comments
In the two years that I have been living in Hyderabad, I have come to appreciate the laid back let bygones be bygones attitude of the people here. It is something I truely appreciated right after the masjid blasts a few months ago. But a recent incident just made me realize that people can be needlessly violent, even in this peaceful city.
On the way back from a shopping trip from one of the businest places in the city, my husband was forced to take a u-turn on a road to avoid a jam. Half-way through the turn, a biker on came whizzing out of a side road on fast powerful bike that are very popular among the teens here. Of course at such speed he couldnot stop in time and grazed the back of our car. We were right about to spring out and see if there was any damage. He was on his bike and upright, so we were not woried. But his actions then shocked us to silence. He took his helmet, which was hanging on the bike handles, and started bashing against the back windshield. On the third hit it totally shattered, hurtling flying glasses on my mom and her friend who were in the back seat. And then he took off before we could see his number plate. My husband who have been in Hydrabad for the last 17 odd years was equally shocked at such an act of wanton violance. All I kept thinking during the incidence is "hope he doesn't have a gun".
If the person is reading this letter I would like say, "I hope you sleep well at night........knowing you stole ours for a night!"
To some extent, I am weary nowadays of any confrontation on the road, even minor or justified. I even keep stopping my hubby from yelling to errant drivers here. After a recent incident where a local student/goonda did a virginia tech and shot a gun in the college, I am taking anything for granted just because we think "it doesn't happen in India"