Road Less Travelled…

Gone are the days of a good romantic long drive, not because we have grown older or parted with our lover, but because the romance of driving has gone. The romance of being the privileged one owning a car and driving through the smooth traffic, on way to Connaught Place, crossing India gate and enjoying the ride as the fresh air kissed our face. It’s all past! It’s all lost!

Today we drive bumper to bumper with people overtaking from both sides. Honks and honks! No body wants to be behind the auto rickshaw and if there’s a girl driving a car then she is taken to be the culprit. If by chance you are just a learner out of the driving school and your car’s engine turns off…all you’ll hear are the deafening honks! Honk! Honk! Honk! Swish-sh-sh swosh-sh of the turning wheels of the cars which change lane without an indicator as if all contesting in the formula one race or are players in a video game. The loud thudding music adding to the noise and those cars with high beams on, almost blind you. Brakes! Brakes! Apply the brakes for heaven sake…screeeeeeech… whew! You almost got that woman crushed under your car. Uff! We have forgotten that the cars have a brake too. We have become so inhuman rather mechanical almost. Need for speed is the greed of the day. Where has all the sense and sensitivity gone?

Why don’t we halt at the traffic lights? Why don’t we indicate while changing lanes? Letting someone pass by is not that bad either. High beams and tinted glasses are ruled out by the traffic governance, why do we not understand that these belts are for our own safety? Where has all the sense and sensitivity gone?

Pedestrians, bicycle riders and rickshaw pullers are amongst one of us humans. They too have a right on road. Riding a technological and scientific box like well designed structure on wheels with five seats on it which runs on petrol and has loads of machinery loaded on it, does not make us larger than our tiny being. What would make us larger is to revive our sense and sensitivity on the road.

Everyday we crib about bad and rash drivers. A scratch or two per day has now become like a daily diet for our cars. And how about those bikers who try and act smart, zip and zoom into those teeny weeny gaps amidst your car and the one ahead, behind or besides you. But don’t worry these bikes would soon transform into another four wheeler- The NANO. And soon the day will arrive when we all will be jamming on road less travelled…