Column

If one were to base one’s judgment on the way Mumbaikars drive-we could be surmised to be a very rude city indeed.

These days especially, when the traffic jams outside my home have traffic jams of their own, I have been observing how very uncouth we are as a people.

You want to turn in to a lane and you wait patiently for an opening between the cars for access, but every other driver around you treats it as a personal challenge to make sure you don’t get the turn you’ve been waiting for.

Even if there is room in front to move up ahead, the driver of the car blocking your passage will make sure you don’t make your turn -at least not while he’s in the vicinity.

Then, there’s this business of waiting for pedestrians to cross. Now, we all know how difficult the traffic situation has become-especially these days of Navratri. Pedestrians have to wait for hours before they get to cross roads.

It costs nothing for a driver-when traffic is moving at a snail’s pace in any case- to stop and allow people to cross, especially if they’re women and children and senior citizens.

Doing so, in most cases the driver is rewarded with some of the most bewildered and then grateful acknowledgements by said pedestrians. Their smiles of gratitude are enough to lift your spirits for the rest of your drive. In most civilised countries, cars slow down for pedestrians who are crossing.

I know the first time I encountered this in Dubai, I was stunned. But then soon I began to enjoy the sheer thrill of knowing that unlike back home in Mumbai -drivers would not actually accelerate the moment they saw me crossing. In Mumbai, a driver will rather strangle himself with his tires than allow a single pedestrian to get past him!

Then, there’s this business of loud honking to show displeasure or irritation. Take a moment too long when the traffic signal turns to green and there will be a whole orchestra of complaints in the form of honks from the line of cars behind you. And that’s not all; most drivers will follow it up with a filthy look aimed in your direction once they have overtaken you-from the left of course!

Rude, impolite discourteous, uncouth, and bad mannered we certainly are on the roads but there’s also one more trait that’s coming through-we’re boorish and chauvinistic. Try being a woman behind the wheel.

A woman who’s a timid driver. A woman who waits for old people and mothers with children and school kids to cross; a woman who follows the rules, and actually waits for the lights to turn green before crossing them; a woman who actually enjoys the experience of driving and who treats every drive in the city as a relaxed, leisurely thing; a woman who stops for ambulances and allows fire engines to get right of way; a woman who does not treat every drive as a race, a virility test or a war.

Try to be such a woman-and experience first hand, how boorish, foul, loutish and coarse Mumbaikers behind the wheel can be!
—s_malavika@dnaindia.net