Every day, as I wake up early and go sleepily to learn driving, one phrase comes in my mind every day, invariably– courtesy the advertisement for Ceat tyres- “the streets are filled with idiots!”. The ad very rightly shows cars having to stop suddenly when a person comes on the road from apparently nowhere; and the vehicle having Ceat tyres, is able to stop suddenly within inches of the ‘idiot’ and prevents the accident from happening. And indeed, this is true! The streets of Delhi are undoubtedly filed with idiots. And no, my “almost sleepy” state has nothing to do with this, for once behind the wheel, I am quite wide awake!
First of all, there seems to be an unspoken rule of “mode of transport, no bar” on the so called ‘main roads’. So, from cars to buses to autorickshaws to two wheelers- you name it, it’ll be there! Half of the roads are blocked by the parked cars nearby the residential areas. And then there are the fruit sellers with their carts, all on the same road. Now all of this wouldn’t be a problem if people were intelligent enough to move in their lanes , and save everybody the trouble. No, the autorickshaws have to move on the right side, obviously very slow ,and the buses will suddenly in sweep from the right to stop at a bus stop on the left, when you are purposefully driving on the left side to stay out of trouble. That’s not all, while the bus comes and you are suddenly forced to brake, there will be children/ women/women with children who will glare at you for the narrow escape they had! But aren’t they supposed to follow the “look left, look right, look left again, then cross the road” rule? Or is that rule not applicable anymore? And as though this is not enough, the drivers of two wheelers think that they own the road just because they can squirm through any amount of space. So there you are at a turn, watching intently right and left before turning, very nervous, when a bike zooms past you. Now if you were moving, there would surely been an accident, and of course the person in the car is at fault. Before you recover from the shock of the ‘almost accident’, the cars behind you start blaring impatiently and you are forced to make a move quickly, or else bear the wrath of the angry Delhite. For a novice driver like me, the daily driving lesson is very scary, for I am in the constant fear of running over someone and it may not even be my fault! Nevertheless, each day I learn a new lesson, and vow to never become like the idiots I encounter daily on the roads...and if I ever see myself transforming into one, well... there come in the Ceat tyres to save me from the accidents!