Walk in the park

Have you ever been stuck in a traffic jam? I don't know about other cities, but I am sure that everyone in Mumbai must have experienced this at some point or the other in their life.

The traffic snarls have become a part of our daily life. Think of it as a big rapacious monster which feeds on your precious time. You can feel its presence when you step out of your home but you never know where or when it will strike. Just the thought of the deadly encounter sends chills down everyone’s spine.

Sometimes you successfully avoid the monster; you feel happy, relieved but still wary of the fact that you can’t delay the inevitable. You know that it is out there, hungry as ever, waiting to pounce when you least expect it.

You feel helpless when it catches you by the throat and sucks the life out of you. Nothing can be done except praying for mercy and trying to survive the ordeal somehow. There are some who try to defy the odds and slay the beast. These are the valiant knights on their powerful horses’ (the bike) and the soldiers on their three legged donkey (the auto rick). They dodge the monster with their nimble movement but all they end up doing is fuel his rage and make everyone’s life even more miserable.

Do you think that the bikes and the auto ricks are the major reason for the choc-a-block traffic woes? Okay, we also have cars which keep on increasing exponentially and there is always the problem of pot holes, construction etc, but there is one segment which we intentionally tend to ignore; we know that they make the problem much worse but we choose to turn a blind eye towards them. They are the “innocent” pedestrians.

Sure, traffic jams are caused due to vehicles, but the people who walk on the street don’t exactly help anyone’s cause. They move around as if they own the road, absolutely oblivious to their surroundings, be it a park or the middle of a busy intersection. Their only objective is to reach their destination, which is the other side of the road. It’s always the drives fault if an accident occurs; the pedestrians are always the innocent souls.

I would like to narrate an incident that occurred the other day; I was on my way to work on an auto rick and was about to reach the train station. The road was straight and clear, there were people waiting on the sidewalk to cross the road but no one was in the middle of the street. Out of nowhere, a middle aged woman jumps in front of the vehicle; the rick driver hit the brakes violently. The lady just raised her arm and made a stop sign as if she stopped the vehicle using her superpower, just like NEO stops the bullets coming towards him in the Matrix. It was absolutely ridiculous, she could have waited for the traffic to ease up and then cross the road but no. I guess she was just standing there, waiting for my rick to approach and thinking, on your marks, get set and GO!

Have you guys come across people like this? I am not sure why people behave this way, all I can say is we should be aware of the risks we pose to ourselves and others while walking on the street. Life is precious; don’t throw it away by being so stupid.