Join us on Orkut| Random Ramblings | Ashmita on July 4, 2008 |
Take a walk on the wild side
Indians are not known for their risk-taking behavior. We are generally thought to be cautious, plodding and safe. But any foreigner (or Indian) has only to look to our streets to see the wild side of the true Indian.
In most other parts of the world, crossing a busy Indian street is considered a brave feat. And so it is. We dodge megaton buses and trucks, leap out of the way of speeding cars, smartly step around uncountable bikes and bicycles, and navigate our way through sundry animals (buffaloes, cows, goats, chickens, dogs, boars, etc…).
While it is a life-threatening exercise for pedestrians and bike riders, car owners have to be made of a different caliber, i.e., the alert marine. They have to constantly keep an eye out for darting children, animals and people, vehicles that suddenly cut across their path, vehicles that suddenly stop dead in front of them, vehicles that come out of invisible side streets, and pretty much any and all movement around them.
Perhaps the most courageous breed of us all is the bike rider. Formula one MotoGP riders could not compete with our fine fellows. A sidewalk? A puddle? A bus? These aren’t even obstacles worthy of their skills. They need at least a foot high road divider to consider it a challenge.
But the Indian is made of stern stuff. These things faze us not at all. Pedestrians don’t need to look both ways before crossing the street. They can easily outrun the vehicle bearing down on them at full speed. And if they don’t, then it’ll be the vehicle’s fault, not theirs. Drivers don’t need to slow down when someone is crossing the street. They can easily outrun the person or animal, they just need to step on the gas. In the mean time, why should that always important phone call go unanswered just because we’re driving a car or crossing the street?
Foreigners coming in from orderly city streets are at first bewildered. Other cities throughout the world are just as populated, and many have even more vehicles on the streets. They don’t know that they have rules, and we don’t. Apart from the recent crackdown on drunk drivers, our one and only law for cars is wearing a seatbelt on streets where going at the speed at which seatbelts are even required is but a fantasy. A license is only required because otherwise the police can charge more moolah. Our roads are so flexible that the right of way is on both sides of the street. Europeans, who occasionally struggle when required to switch between driving on the left-hand side and right-hand side, could learn a thing or two from us. As for traffic lights, they’re for wimps, which is why we don’t see many of them on our brave Indian streets. Stopping at the rare traffic light is just a waste of the extremely busy Indian’s time.
So, the next time you hear someone say that Indians are not aggressive enough or are too safe, please direct their attention to the daily heroic deeds that can be seen on any busy city street. They are truly unparalleled.
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2 Responses to “Take a walk on the wild side”
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Nice thought. The amount of risks we take in our day-to-day lives hardly crosses our minds.
hey, i totally relate to what you have to say, as a pedestrian and as a bike rider : ) Drop by drop the words that fall into this article articulate what every day travelling (more like in Mumbai, where i am from) is all about. Although the next time dont contradict your own statments