traffic woes

It's been raining quite a bit of late. While traffic gets chaotic and everybody wanting to reach wherever they are going in a hurry, there's helplessness, rashness, anger to be seen everywhere.

A few days back when it was the rainiest day in the city, the rickshaw a friend was traveling in got hit head on by a garbage dumper. With the rain pouring down in sheets, the fire brigade had to pull him out and the cops rushed both the driver and him to the hospital, bleeding all the while and unconscious. The driver couldn't be revived and was declared dead while the friend is still struggling with metal plates and stuff in certain parts of his body.

These days I have been traveling with my heart in my mouth. Since I haven't been driving to office for some time, I am at the mercy of rickshaws to commute. Once in a rare while, I find a careful driver who drives in line, who follows rules. The rest are all maniacs, out to avenge some misdeeds from their past lives. They race, they brake hard, they gleefully bump into potholes without slowing down while I hold on to the rails for dear life. I like to be prepared as much as possible. But I am still caught off guard when the driver brakes suddenly and another maniac bumps from behind with a little jolt. Then there is verbal diarrhea spewed from both ends.

Sometimes I wonder what causes this attitude in our drivers. Whether it's a BEST bus driver who honks angrily and threatens to crush you out of his way or the rickshaw driver who thinks the road is his racing ground, they are like angry monsters whose food has been snatched away. I agree they have a hard life and driving on Bombay roads from morning till night could be traumatic, but that's hardly an excuse for tormenting the humble public. For I don't want a nightmare on the road every time I step out. I don't want to check my lingerie every morning when I dress up, for if ever anything happens, I would never want to be caught dead with undignified underwear!