Every day, right when I start my bike from my room until I reach office (and, vice versa), I keep on thinking, about the traffic rules that no one follows. Well, I remember the famous quote "There are three sides to an argument – your side, my side and the right side". Brings a little smile to my face when I think of what I'm about to write!
Scenario 1: If you are in Chennai, you might have heard about the 'Medavakkam koot road' and that's the road that I use to start from Kovilambakkam to Siruseri. That's actually a narrow road and you cannot overtake a bus (unless ofcourse, if there are no vehicles coming in the opposite direction). A calculated risk involves in overtaking the bus (or any other big vehicle – even a car) and for gaining speed. So, when I overtake a bus or say, a van, the vehicle coming opposite to me, say a bike – he could have given me a little way (by moving to his left side) to complete my overtake of the bus, but instead, even though he has space for about a car on his left side, he'll flash his head light and signal me not to come! My thought: Why the hell won't you move to your left side and give a little way for me to finish overtaking the bus?
Scenario 2: When nearing the Sholinganallur signal. Just when you pass the Toll Gate, all the company buses (including that of Cognizant) and government buses suddenly would rush past you (I honestly have no idea on how they suddenly appear just before the Sholing signal or maybe it's my imaginary thought?) and stop before you at places where even a car would have tough time to go without scratching its nose. If that bus was not there, I'd have easily gone past all the vehicles waiting before us and in front of the signal. The thing is, as soon as the bus enters the mentioned place-where-a-car-would-have-tough-time-to-go, even with my bike, I'll not have any room left to move on the left side! My thought: Why the hell are you blocking my way? With you action, not only you, but no one else who're standing behind you can go forward! Why can't you allow a little space on the left side for atleast the bikers to pass?
Scenario 3: Again, when nearing the Sholinganallur Singal and see a lot of traffic ahead, right from the Toll Gate. This time since the buses takes the left side mostly; I try the right side [the wrong side]. I know I break the traffic rules by going on the other side of the road, but when you are so desperate to reach office on time, you won't consider these! So, breaking the rules, I'd curse whoever comes on the right side to move a little to the left (Just to get you a clear picture here – the left side of our road will be full of vehicles waiting for the signal to clear and almost half of the right side of the road [the wrong side] will still be filled with vehicles waiting on the road and we'll still be overtaking them to go to the front). My thought: Why the hell won't they move left? Don't they think that people should go to office on time?
Ok, now comes the fun part with a '.1'. Recently, I revisited the same scenarios from the other side! Here you go:
Scenario 1.1: I was into night shifts for about a week. I was leaving the office late and was crossing the same 'Medavakkam koot road' at around 8:30 AM. Now, my side of the road was almost free – only one or two vehicles while the other side was swarmed with bus, cars and bikes. Suddenly, I see a lot of bikers (and even cars/autos!) trying to overtake bus or cars in front of them, came right at me! I had to signal them to stop using my head lights! My thought: Why the hell are they crossing that yellow line? Don't they see that I have some rough roads on the left side and that's why I'm using the middle lane?
Scenario 2.1: It was a Friday and I planned to go to my hometown directly from the office. So, I left the bike at my room and caught a government bus to go to office. Now, when I see from the bus, all the bikers are going past the bus, sneaking through the little gaps and making it impossible for the bus or other vehicles that stand before them to start as soon as the signal is clear! Even though our bus was almost the first to get caught at the signal, when it was green, we had to wait for about 30-45 seconds for the bikers to clear the area (who came very late) and after that only, the bus could start! My thought: Why the hell are they coming and blocking the way like this? Isn't it supposed to be First Come First Serve basis?
Scenario 3.1: From or to office, Sholinganallur signal is always busy. So, I had to literally swim through the 'Scenario 2' kind of situations when I left office towards home after my night shift and finally took the left turn towards Medavakkam. Now, I see a lot of people coming in the opposite direction, leaving us a little space to go through. My thought: Why the hell are they coming in the wrong side? Why don't they start early if they think they're late to office? Idiots!
Now, you have no idea how long it took for me to finish typing this [especially in English]. I'm sure some of you might not even understand what the hell am I talking about?! In that case, do mention this in the comments and I'll try the Tamil version of the same scenarios!
PS: Well, the right side is, I started following the traffic rules these days!
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