One of my favorite pet peeves about the bustling city is its unruly traffic manners. Everything thats in the etiquette book for driving is thrown out the driver's window. Leaving caution and road safety of self and others to the devils, people speed away on their preferred death wagons.
This is the new rule book on driving etiquette* for the bewildered newcomers.
- Lanes are nothing but decorative white lines gracing the few fortunate roads.
- Road construction is like a raging monster which gobbles existing roads and churns out debris the size of Mars. Watch out for construction vehicles parked in the wrong places. The signs advising about ongoing work double as a visual accuracy test board. Only the sharpest eye may win.
- Indicators are for emergency situations. Drivers flash it when they have already made a turn. Buses are not required to display indications while turning, stopping or changing lanes.
- Traffic signals look their best when not working.
- Honk. Even if the streets are empty and its 2 a.m. Consider it as important as breathing.
- Watch out for pedestrians. They jump out of nowhere and will scold you regardless of whose fault it is.
- Auto rickshaw and hired cab drivers are issued licenses to terrorise and torture other road users. They arrive on the roads after a heavy bollywood/kollywood action cinema dose and treat the roads as an elaborate film set. Don't expect any mercy.
The only saving grace are the traffic cops. They are at every major signal diligently making the city roads accessible and safe for the common man. Hats Off to them!
* Just kidding about the etiquette book. Don't sue me for it as I have no money. If you wish to donate, kindly post a comment.
