Traffic: Guilty or not?
Earlier this evening, we were walking towards the vegetable shop for weekly purchase. At the signal (12th Main and Indira Nagar 100 ft Road), we saw a rickshaw nudge a bike rider, who then fell off his bike. The biker was not hurt much. We saw this all happening. The rickshaw was taking a left turn and had the indicator on (surprise!). Still, the biker tried to overtake from the left, just as the light turned green. As the rickshaw turned, its front touched the rear end of the bike; the bike fell and the biker stumbled a little.
I saw that the biker was fine. Clearly at fault, the biker was still shouting at the rickshaw driver (who just carried on his way). I did not go to help him. I was fairly conflicted… the right thing to do was to perhaps help him pick his bike up. But somewhere in my mind, I felt “justice served” and I didn’t move forward.
I still don’t know if it was the right thing to do. May be the Indian traffic does bring out the worst in us. Or may be its just karma.
Oh yes, talking about karma, it did feel great when, driving back, I was one of the two responsible for vehicles obeying the red signal. We both (two Maruti Swifts) stopped at red. Two fairly aggressive bus drivers tried to overtake us, but the road wasn’t wide enough for two buses to pass our cars. Not only that, the buses were so positioned that not even bikers could go through. We got honked at for almost half a minute… and believe me, it felt just great. I only wish that red signal should have lasted a little longer.
When I visited Chennai recently, I had to get a certificate from a Taluk office. The clerk demanded a Rs 100 “gift” after issuing me the certificate. Me being the hot blood that I am refused and just to “teach him a lesson” donated a 100 bucks for the flag day and collected a receipt from his collegue!! I felt so good about this that after coming back to US I bragged about it to every friend that I met.
In retrospect, I feel ashamed. Essentially, I did what is fashionable these days and I was just pampering my own sense of superiority. There wasn’t much of a social responsibility side to this. Hope you get my point, Dr. Niket.
Anyways, I enjoy reading your blog. Have been a regular for the past few days. Regards.