Road Rage

It’s a bit odd that people in Delhi complain about the ill mannered traffic, when they themselves, at some point of time in their life, are involved in what we call “Road Rage”. This is the most widespread disease in any metro city, but Delhi is the worst hit. It is more profound than AIDS and any other disease. I, myself, am a patient of this particular disease. Though my views can be biased, but unbiased views are really hard to find. The one who drives will definitely be biased, the one who doesn’t, doesn’t really know what to say. So there’s no question of unbiased view.
Anyways, coming back to the topic, I was infected when my dad gave me the steering and said, “Here, now you take over son”. I didn’t really realize back then. But later I realized that I always turned into a monster whenever I took my baby for a ride. I dunno if it was just me or the feeling of taking full control makes you step hard on gas. Five, four, three, two, one …GO!!! That’s what I think when I’m at the traffic lights. I guess every young person has a hormone that causes this. But touch wood, I have still not met with an accident. May be its luck, may be my skill. I cannot be modest nor can I be proud of this. Now you guys will think that if I have gone banana! Well as a matter of fact, I still am a road beast. But the only thing good in this beast is that now it also respects others on the road. I still wanna race @ 100 kmph, but I wouldn’t do it if others are at potential danger. Perhaps I would race that much on an expressway (the Gurgaon one or the Noida one :)).
Not that my conscience came to me all of a sudden, there was an incident (accident) which made me change my mind. When I used to live in Noida, I and my family were coming back from a mall and I was driving. It so happened that a man with a kid in his arms and another one holding his hand was crossing the road. I was @ 60 and they suddenly came before me. There was a screeching voice of the brakes. Hey! I didn’t hit the guy. Chill out! But it scared the hell outta me. As a reflex I started swearing at him. This man, I dunno what he did. He sort of gave me a look or a stare, didn’t even say a word and walked away. May be he looked at me in disgust. May be he just looked down upon me in amusement as I was the one who lost it. Now the car is not in motion but there’s a bullet train running in my head. Those were the worst 5-6 seconds of my life. My dad sort of expressed his disappointment for my behavior. I don’t remember the words but I’m sure that everyone in the car struck me off their “favorites list”. Though I have made up for that to them since then by controlling my anger. But I never gottu see that man again. I feel sorry that I screamed at him despite my fault. May that’s “Road Rage” and I promised myself that I would be considerate of others on the road too.
Road Rage is the most wide spreading disease in metros and the worst part is that our govt. is not doing anything about it. That’s why I wrote this to tell my friends that expressing one’s anger in a way that hurts others is not the best solution, especially when you are on the road because when you are on the road, you have slight odds that you wouldn’t return safe back home. So why add more to those odds? So my friends! Drive slow and care for others on the road. c ya later