Uggh! I just got out of the morning traffic. How appropriate it would be if ‘TRAFFIC’ were a foul four lettered word! One uses it, and its more obscene cousins, often enough in the traffic!
I fail to understand how normal, decent people become complete selfish maniacs when they have a wheel in front of them and four wheels below! Does the engine drive the Mr. Hyde into them? Do they leave behind the benign Dr Jekyll, the minute they close the car door? I don’t know. All I know is that the roads have become race tracks, where everyone is trying to get ahead. Nosing the other car out of the way, honking at traffic signals - while the light is still red. Impatient to get ahead. Don’t even get me started on those motorists who conveniently drive the wrong way.
What is even more annoying is that these very same people, drive like angels with a halo over their heads, when in another country. You will hardly see an Indian being caught for a traffic offense in any foreign country. But while in India..aahhh, then it is time for some bollywood 'rock n roll' on the roads! Some ‘dishum-dishum masala’ at the intersections. Not to forget the song-n-dance between bike, auto and taxi cabs. Full ‘tamasha’ only! But certainly not very entertaining ‘tamasha’.
A recently conducted survey showed that people driving during peak hours of traffic showed an abnormally high BP reading! Not surprising.
If I had three traffic wishes, I would first wish away those impatient horns. Next, the mad overtaking - the ‘I have places to reach faster than you’ attitude. And last, I would wish for a sense of decorum while driving.
Adding a small nursery rhyme, which my daughter sings to me at every traffic signal, just to jump start our misty memories:
“Twinkle, twinkle traffic light
Standing in the corner bright
Red says STOP, green says GO
And yellow says, better go S-L-O-W.”
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