Yes, I'm talking about the white Indicas that ferry the ITES crowd to their offices. Just today while going to office, on the Durgam Cheruvu road(near the manhole that is spewing out water), this cabbie first cut into the opposite lane by bypassing the speed breaker (Mistake1) and then on seeing an oncoming vehicle it tried to cut into my lane and almost hit my car (Mistake2) where as the cabbie should have slowed down and come in behind my car. I had to break hard to avoid getting hit.
Now this got me furious, not because of what happened to me, but because next time somebody else's car could actually get hit or worse a pedestrian could get badly hurt because of this cabbie. I drove ahead and asked the cabbie to stop;pulled him to a side and asked the passengers (all ITES chaps) which company they were from (won't malign that company be naming it here) and then asked the name of the transport company (forgot the name). To my surprise, the passengers actually got angry..... with me. Imagine that. They had seen how this cabbie had driven, they knew it was this cabbie's fault and yet they started picking a fight with me. Then another cab carrying employees of this same company stopped and those guys who had no idea of what had happened (esp this bald guy who thought he could bully me into submission) started shouting at me.
Then one of the passengers of the original cab said that they didn't expect this from an educated guy. I tell you, I could have garlanded that guy. I said this was exactly my point. "You are educated and you saw how this guy drove, yet instead of making sure that the cabbie drives properly, 10 of you are ganging up against me and telling me that I shouldn't have stopped you this manner". Then this another passenger said... and this is hilarious... he says "I'm a senior manager . What are you telling me about rules"? I almost laughed in his face. How does being a senior manager make you an authority on traffic rules? He was this typical, I'm-a-manager-so-I-will-show-off kind of person And I'm pretty sure that bald guy was this senior manager's direct report because he said "We don't have to talk to these kind of persons, sir. Let's go". I mean hello!!!!! You weren't even there when it happened, Mr Bald Guy.
These are the kind of people we try to save from accidents. I told them that the only reason I stopped the cabbie was to make sure that he doesn't cause anybody else harm. I said that what if he had hit somebody known to you. Your father? Your mother? Would you wait until that happens or will you stop this cabbie from hurting someone before hand?
When things like this happen, you feel hurt and disappointed. For these same people we had stood in the sun to Free the Left Lane;for these same people we put in OUR TIME and EFFORT to solve traffic issues;then these guys just go and let you down so badly. All you are expected to do is do the right thing, to drive safely and to ensure that people around you drive safely. Is that so difficult?
Unbelievable experience. My stand that the people may be engineers/MBAs but may not be educated is exactly because of these kind of people.
1 comment:
Excellent Sameer, Thank you very much for pointing the truth. Today I thought some what about the traffic in Hyderabad and thought of sharing with somebody, fortunately I had a chance to read your blog and sharing my comments. I believe the traffic problems are everybody's responsibility. I know the people who cross the signals when it is RED; they cross the white zebra lines while stopping on RED; they think proud when they jump the signal in traffic; they drive rashly in front of other vehicles (because of this some 2-wheelers they cannot even escape from hitting other vehicles because of their vehicle's poor breaking systems - how pity is this?); they do not give respect to the pedestrians; they do not give side to the fast going vehicles; they do not use indicators for changing their lanes; they do neglect (because of their very busy lifes :)) the people who were injured in a bad accident;
The traffic control in Hyderabad is everybody's responsibility.
Some points to follow for better traffic guidelines:
1. Start early at home to go your destination.
2. Go slowly and observe the other vehicles coming behind.
3. Give a way to the heavy vehicles coming with high speed.
4. Respect the pedestrian signals and pedestrians; give them the first priority.
5. Slow down your vehicle speed to a controllable speed when you are reaching the signals (even it is in GREEN).
6. Do not cross in ORANGE and RED.
7. Do not go in wrong way.
Thank you very much for your blog.
Chandra.
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