Saturday 26 October 2013

Delhi Daredevils

Don't go by the title. I am least interested in the IPL team of Delhi, neither am I a great fan of cricket. This story is of all those anonymous daredevils I have seen every time I step out on the streets. Delhi's roads offer them so much space to show their daredevilry.

I am a student. I don't have a car or any vehicle. Thus, I need to take the various forms of public transports. I seldom take buses. I prefer taking metro, however, to reach a metro station, I have no option but to take an autorickshaw and from thereon starts my ordeal on the Delhi roads full of superheroes.

Don't mistake these superheroes for ones who would save your life. They would rather endanger it along with their own. They come in all kinds of machines; cars, autos, buses, trucks, scooters, etc. You imagine a machine and they will be right there in front of you.

Once on the road, they feel they have a complete right to do whatever they have in their heads. Since they are 'super' heroes, which means right above the heroes, beyond any comparison with the lesser mortals like me, they assume they are even above the traffic rules. Or let's just say, no one ever told them about the rules. Or even better, they have their own set of rules.

Rule no 1 : Keep your speed ahead of others. Delhi's heavy traffic jams try to slow them down a bit. But once on a clear road, they move with meteoric speed regardless of whatever the maximum speed limit might be.

Rule no 2 : Keep changing your lanes. No one has ever learned in Delhi to remain in one's own lane. (the minority who have are being overshadowed by these higher beings) It seems, the superheroes have got so much busy in their superheroic deeds that they need to reach instantly to their destinations, that first they speed up and second, they would not mind changing lanes every now and then to the point of being heedless to brush with a vehicle. It does not matter to them anyhow. If in case they do touch someone else's car, they have a knack of overpowering the other by bad mouthing them.

Rule no 3 : Keep a distance of a needle with the previous car while stopping at the traffic lights. Once arriving at the traffic lights, beware of these people. They might be ahead or behind you. They believe in proximity and so they would stop right behind the car in front of them without any space. ( when I was young, while travelling I used to see words like "Don't honk and Keep distance' written on trucks, I think they were at fault, They always meant " Honk and don't keep distance") They might even hit your car from behind. You would obviously remain unaware of these heroes until hit by them.

Rule no 4 : Since each superhero film has an awesome background score, these heroes think that they need to create some music as well. Though what it turns out to be is blatant cacophony. They would annoy you by honking incessantly sometimes, a few times it just pleases to their ears and yet some other times even when not needed, they would oblige you.

Whenever I come on the streets, to be honest, I feel scared by these daredevils who pay no heed to others who are also there on the roads. They would speed up as if they are F1 racers, come as close as crushing your vehicle, change lanes unnecessarily and honk till death. Is there any way out for a commonner , not of a superhero origin like me to feel secured and safe in such a chaos that is DeLHI with its streets?









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