By Rajiv S. Rubdi:
The other day, when I was trying to make my way out of a busy street in Bangalore, amidst the deafening noise, I saw a rather obvious but thought provoking hoarding which read “Honking won’t make the traffic disappear!” But while many of us, out of pure gut instinct turned a blind eye towards it and honked our way into oblivion. The rest of us cursed others for honking louder than ourselves! We all were aware that we could not avoid being late for work just by making a lot of noise. All of this is part of common sense, but we’ve made ourselves so accustomed to our old habits, that we’ve convinced ourselves otherwise. And, as they say, common sense is not so common! It’s quite understandable that we have a hectic schedule, and we’ll miss something if we don’t make it on time, but whenever we’re tempted to honk, we need to recall the words on that hoarding.
With traffic jams, pollution (noise & air) and unruly drivers becoming a common place occurrence in our cities, tempers are bound to flare. Recently, Bangalore Mirror reported a rise in blood pressure levels due to the traffic menace in the city. Also, the poor pedestrian who tries cross the roads even at a zebra crossing is in for a shock therapy just because we had a bad day at work or a fight with our spouse!
Bangalore celebrated a No Honking Day on April 28th this year where the city’s top police men and judges tried to create awareness among the motorists. We even have a group called Smiling Drivers whose members stick to traffic rules diligently and smile at the commuters at traffic jams! But, as always, the rest of us stuck to our old habits and carried on with our sadistic ways.
All it takes to bring about a transformational change in our ways is a conscious effort towards the same. Add to that a tinge of self discipline, and we’ll have a few less honks to worry about and a few more of those elusive “Smiling Drivers”!