The capital city has the quality of bringing out people's desire to exhibit "I am the master" phenomenon. I was in Delhi over the weekend and was staying with Nilesh, one of my best friends during our undergraduate days. With his home as a base, I also met my school-day friends who were in Delhi. Now, Nilesh stays in Vasundhara Enclave, while my school friends are based in Gurgaon. So, I decided to take the famous Delhi Metro to commute across the city. Nilesh, who is ever-obliging, agreed to drop me to Indraprastha, a convenient station to catch a Metro to the other end of the city.
I geared up for the drive on Delhi's wide and smooth roads (of course, this is the new part of Delhi). And I was in for a shock. The mentality of drivers narrows as the width of the road increases. Changing lanes without warning, drastically reducing speeds at will, cutting through lanes to make that left turn, it is a rage out there! To top it up, the local transport buses execute heart-stopping overtaking maneuvers. Drivers always have to be on their toes, trying to out-guess all the drivers driving just ahead, besides and just behind them. It is like plotting those political moves just to retain your chair!
And through the day, I kept observing the similar pattern of Delhi's traffic. While travelling aboard a DTC bus (the new low-floor buses are too good and well-lit, compared to the regular ones) the driver was out to show "who's the greatest of them all" and managed to bully a few Maruti 800s and Indicas. It is in the best of your interests not to venture near any passenger carrying bus in Delhi. There is a saying, "Dilli, dilwaalon ki!!", but only for those with a strong heart.
Cut to Mumbai. Lane changing, lane cutting does happen. But in a civilised manner. The drivers do have some consideration for their brethren. A driver will either signal or gradually slow down before making a lane change. The change is not sudden, but a gradual, even if there is no indicator given. The rage is there, but is more considerate and moderate. That, I guess is the spirit of Mumbai city!
I geared up for the drive on Delhi's wide and smooth roads (of course, this is the new part of Delhi). And I was in for a shock. The mentality of drivers narrows as the width of the road increases. Changing lanes without warning, drastically reducing speeds at will, cutting through lanes to make that left turn, it is a rage out there! To top it up, the local transport buses execute heart-stopping overtaking maneuvers. Drivers always have to be on their toes, trying to out-guess all the drivers driving just ahead, besides and just behind them. It is like plotting those political moves just to retain your chair!
And through the day, I kept observing the similar pattern of Delhi's traffic. While travelling aboard a DTC bus (the new low-floor buses are too good and well-lit, compared to the regular ones) the driver was out to show "who's the greatest of them all" and managed to bully a few Maruti 800s and Indicas. It is in the best of your interests not to venture near any passenger carrying bus in Delhi. There is a saying, "Dilli, dilwaalon ki!!", but only for those with a strong heart.
Cut to Mumbai. Lane changing, lane cutting does happen. But in a civilised manner. The drivers do have some consideration for their brethren. A driver will either signal or gradually slow down before making a lane change. The change is not sudden, but a gradual, even if there is no indicator given. The rage is there, but is more considerate and moderate. That, I guess is the spirit of Mumbai city!
Aha! The Mumbaikar is slowly warming up. The Senas will be happy to read the last paragraph of thy post.
ReplyDeleteBus-drivers always think that they are the kings of the roads. Since their vehicle is the biggest plying on the roads, they always bully the smaller vehicles much to our chagrin but then there are very considerate drivers as well who treat the bus and the roads as if its their delicate darling. Both are annoying.
Reading your title, I assumed that you were going to write about the rage of Valentine's day. It was a surprise.
Long time since you wrote so it was nice to read a post from 'Passions . . . mind.'
Joy always,
Susan
@Susan,
ReplyDeleteIt isn't a case of Mumbaikar warming up! The 2 days I was in Delhi, not a single evening passed when two drivers were fighting on the middle of the road because one vehicle rammed into the other.
If driving style in Mumbai was similar to that of Delhi, I should have seen such incidents almost daily in front of IIT, where the traffic is too heavy and there is a race to cross the signal to avoid waiting.