Friday, November 21, 2014

Bengaluru Traffic Chronicles - The Tit-for-Tat Dude

Bengaluru is a city known for its perfect weather. The city is also notorious for its traffic. My favorite traffic story is, 'I take 45 minutes to drive 3 km. My husband also takes the same amount of time to drive 15 km.' The non-linearity in time vs. distance is because I have to take a right turn at the badass, 'Graphite India Junction (GIJ)', to go to office. 

Over these two years, I have gained some traffic gyaan. I observed that at the junctions, a few people have psychic knowledge of the traffic signals. Even before the signal turns green, they start honking. When I encounter such a situation, I willfully move slowly the first few seconds to raise the blood pressure of the driver behind me. 

I met a tit-for-tat dude yesterday morning, who raised my blood pressure, and hence his blog post. I was waiting at the GIJ for the signal to turn green. The signal turned green. All the vehicles started moving except for the car in front of me.

I waited for 3 seconds without honking. The car in front of me started moving backwards. I realized that the guy did not know that he was at an inclination. The car was slowly inching towards my car. I gave a long honk, concerned that his car will smooch mine. This dude looked at me from his rear-view mirror and took his own sweet time to move. I understood that he wanted to drive home a lessson, 'Be patient at traffic signals. You are not losing much time if I don't move.' My honk was misunderstood. 

I know that there are plans to organize a Kiss of Love campaign in Bengaluru this weekend. That is not an excuse for your car to kiss mine. It is infectious to our wallets and morning peace. On top of it, this dude got to take a right turn, whereas the signal turned red, just when I was about to take a right turn. I had to wait for another 7 minutes. Time does matter.

Over this whole episode, the learner dude behind me waited patiently without honking and tried to analyze the situation with a perplexed expression. I hope that we will all have the patience of a learner but drive like an expert.    



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On a similar note, the Whitefield Traffic Police Samaritans are redirecting traffic at the Graphite India Junction, starting today (22 Nov 2014). Take time to notice how your route might change. I hope this little plan of theirs works out and I will be home in 10 minutes. 


The picture says, final option. I wonder what their other options were. 




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