Episode 1
This happened on Thursday. My office timings had changed to 8:30 am. Since I go to the gym at the office itself, I usually start at 7:30 from my house. The roads at these times are generally empty. Its a nice time to ride a bike. Anyways, there's a red light as soon as we enter Noida. Normally during rush hours its pretty common to ride on when the signal has just turned red and stuff since you are in a hurry and there's loads of traffic honking and sh*t. I usually "try" and follow traffic rules as much as I can. I was about to cross the signal, when it turned red. I stopped. There was this car behind who didnt like the idea. He kept honking and honking...I tried to ignore him as much as I can. There was plenty of space on both the sides...I mean how much space can a bike take on the road. Anyways I heard him calling out to "me" from his window. I looked back to see a scowl on his face.. really angry and asked me to move on. I politely showed him the signal...to which he even more politely showed me the finger!!! I was like .. whats the problem with you man..and with my hands I directed that he could go around me and turned around. He honked a bit more but I did not relent. He finally went dangerously close to me ..hair length away..and showed me more of his fingers. Damn he really loved that middle finger of his. I gave him a smile when he went by. I was really upset on the inside though. Soon the signal turned green and I was on my way again really thinking what did I do to deserve his wrath.
Episode 2
Same night, it was about 11 I guess, when I was in the lift. I got a call on my cellphone. I thought it must be from my home but it was from Viral. I picked up and the first words I heard was "Rakesh!......Me and Abhijeet met with an accident!" I was scared sh*t. Both of them left together on Viral's bike some time before us. Bike accidents are really ugly. He said that the Sec-18 flyover was being repaired and there were these li'l pebbles strewn around the road. He skidded on this and fell down really bad. Thankfully there wasn't any traffic...they could have been crushed under some other vehicle. Anyways they were waiting for my other friend Jain to come. They were sitting on the footpath in pain. Myself, Partha and Heera rushed to the spot with our bikes and I thought of giving him a lecture to drive slowly! However when I reached the spot I saw soo many of these pebbles covering the entire road. I myself was about to skid..had I not known about this earlier. It was scary...hell..while waiting for Jain, we ourselves saw other cars skidding!! However Viral and Abhijeet were safe. Abhijeet had got some nasty bruises on his legs..and Viral had pain on his butts ( :D ). We could afford to have a li'l laugh at him about this since they weren't hurt that much. But we came to know from other ppl on the road that there were about 5 more accidents. To top it all Viral said that they put the "Work in progress" sign board AFTER their accident!! Damn..it took 6 accidents for the repairmen to realize that they should post their f*ckin signboard!!
Back home after going to the hospital to get them checked up, I couldn't help thinking about the day I had as I lay down on my bed. Why are we like this? Its time we grow up! We have a long way to go..screw economic development...we should improve ourselves first!
This happened on Thursday. My office timings had changed to 8:30 am. Since I go to the gym at the office itself, I usually start at 7:30 from my house. The roads at these times are generally empty. Its a nice time to ride a bike. Anyways, there's a red light as soon as we enter Noida. Normally during rush hours its pretty common to ride on when the signal has just turned red and stuff since you are in a hurry and there's loads of traffic honking and sh*t. I usually "try" and follow traffic rules as much as I can. I was about to cross the signal, when it turned red. I stopped. There was this car behind who didnt like the idea. He kept honking and honking...I tried to ignore him as much as I can. There was plenty of space on both the sides...I mean how much space can a bike take on the road. Anyways I heard him calling out to "me" from his window. I looked back to see a scowl on his face.. really angry and asked me to move on. I politely showed him the signal...to which he even more politely showed me the finger!!! I was like .. whats the problem with you man..and with my hands I directed that he could go around me and turned around. He honked a bit more but I did not relent. He finally went dangerously close to me ..hair length away..and showed me more of his fingers. Damn he really loved that middle finger of his. I gave him a smile when he went by. I was really upset on the inside though. Soon the signal turned green and I was on my way again really thinking what did I do to deserve his wrath.
Episode 2
Same night, it was about 11 I guess, when I was in the lift. I got a call on my cellphone. I thought it must be from my home but it was from Viral. I picked up and the first words I heard was "Rakesh!......Me and Abhijeet met with an accident!" I was scared sh*t. Both of them left together on Viral's bike some time before us. Bike accidents are really ugly. He said that the Sec-18 flyover was being repaired and there were these li'l pebbles strewn around the road. He skidded on this and fell down really bad. Thankfully there wasn't any traffic...they could have been crushed under some other vehicle. Anyways they were waiting for my other friend Jain to come. They were sitting on the footpath in pain. Myself, Partha and Heera rushed to the spot with our bikes and I thought of giving him a lecture to drive slowly! However when I reached the spot I saw soo many of these pebbles covering the entire road. I myself was about to skid..had I not known about this earlier. It was scary...hell..while waiting for Jain, we ourselves saw other cars skidding!! However Viral and Abhijeet were safe. Abhijeet had got some nasty bruises on his legs..and Viral had pain on his butts ( :D ). We could afford to have a li'l laugh at him about this since they weren't hurt that much. But we came to know from other ppl on the road that there were about 5 more accidents. To top it all Viral said that they put the "Work in progress" sign board AFTER their accident!! Damn..it took 6 accidents for the repairmen to realize that they should post their f*ckin signboard!!
Back home after going to the hospital to get them checked up, I couldn't help thinking about the day I had as I lay down on my bed. Why are we like this? Its time we grow up! We have a long way to go..screw economic development...we should improve ourselves first!
2 comments:
I have had nasty experiences with red lights as well.
Once I was standing at a red light when a car started honking behind me. When I didn't move the guy actually banged right into my bike. Guess what, this happened right in front of a traffic police guy.
When I approached the officer, he, rather than apprehending the offender, started shouting at me.
The problem is, in India the right of way is with whoever is the largest/heaviest.
Pedestrians < Bicycles < Motor-Bikes < Cars < SUVs < Buses/Trucks
Now, I just get out of the way of these idiots and leave them enough space to go through.
yah..no point confronting them...hell ppl get murdered on the road in Delhi!
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