The (More Than) Sorry State of Indian Roads and Traffic…
God… This has been a real bad week for me. As I have already announced in my last post here, that I was out of town. Or rather I am out of town and I don’t have an internet access, but just have received my laptop. So, I am writing this article, if I may say, to pass some time.
So, starting from the start, I am really freaked out (or was freaked out a few days ago) at the sorry (or more than sorry) state of the Indian highways. And this is not just about the condition of the roads but this is about the way that people drive, the government overlooks or does not care about the things that go on.
Here I was, on my first ever night drive on the state highways. And it sucked. For the start, the road (remember, we are talking about the state highway here, not a service lane), is full of bumps and rough patches. It sucks. I mean, you cannot even accelerate to 50kmph on half the road. If you do, you will have bent shock-absorber pipes, a way crany frame and backpain. Now comes the part about the way most of the people drive. I have seen many people brake signals and run away in the cities, where there are no policemen. Or even when there are any, most of the times, people just pay them (buy them off). This leads to accidents as you might have guessed. On highways however, the speed of a vehicle is not 30kmph. It is more. And when you hit someone at that speed, there is a lot of chance where either of the two might get seriously injured of even die. And it might happen to the both parties involved in the accident.
The second part of this is that, even though, seat belts are important and compulsory, people tend to ignore wearing them and same is true for helmets. Now, if you (people) don’t love their life, I don’t care. But if you come and hit me and in the process, lose your invaluable life, it all comes down to me. I am the one who is convicted, I am the one who has to go around the police stations and courts and stuff. I am the one who ends up as a criminal and you get to pursue your dream of dropping down dead on a highway being driven over by a car. This is not what I, or for that part, most of us want; OK?
Why the hell am I freaked out (was)? Well, that first experience I was just talking about… I was not able to see the road for the first part cause there are no lights on the road. That might be okay but you still can put up solar powered lights. Anyways, so no lights, and people don’t even have the courtesy to drive with normal lights on. I mean, first there are no lights on the road, so it is hard to see. To add to this, people switch on the full lights, so you have a kind of search light on your face. Which obviously makes it more difficult to see.
I did not hit anyone, nor did involve myself in any kind of accident on that day (Or ever since I started driving, for that matter) but it was still very difficult. Now I am beginning to understand why my father always used to say (or still says) that we must avoid driving in the night. Now I know it is for our own safety. I used to say, “it is only 6 hours, why can’t we go by car?” when it used to be evening or so. Now I know why he used to say no. Driving should be like a pleasure. Instead, here what we have is more stress that one might get by following the SENSEX.
My take in this… no, wait, before that, the latest incident. This all I wrote above was regarding the time when I was driving a car, but, when I was in a bus, when I was coming here… I have witnessed something which was more disturbing. The bus driver was literally driving in the wrong side for about 5Km. I mean what the fuck. I could lose my life for gods sake. He just crossed the road divider at a turn and started going in the wring direction just to save a couple of drops of diesel. I mean, WHAT ABOUT OUR LIVES YOU ASSHOLE. One thing for sure, I don’t care if it takes 2 hours more travel if I go by train, I can at least be sure that the train won’t leave the track (… when I come back and think of it… I don’t think you can be sure, even about the trains these days….). Now… I don’t have the email ID of the bus service, but as soon as I get it, I am going to send them an email with the entire dictionary of foul words at my disposal.
Doing some speeding, or getting in dangerous sports and stuff is fine. I can understand that and even, for that matter, engage myself in a couple. But not when it can cost me my life. It is too short to waste like this… All the more reason I am thinking of getting my own chopper…. 
Again, here are the latest happenings of the anti-road thing of mine. We were driving to Murud-Janjira. It is a small combo of a town and a water fort. The actual distance for which my dad was driving the car must be around some 70Km. But it took almost 2 hours for that drive. First of all, the road… I dunno if it was a state highway, but if it was one, then the Indian government and ultimately India has a long long way to go before it can call itself even a desent country. It was pathetic, the road. Most of the times, it was not broad enough even for 2 vehicles to cross simultaneously going opposite way. That used to cause frequent stops and waitings. And as if that was not enough, many Bus drivers (again government not private) were stopping midway in the road for passengers. Till today, I used to think that there are things built, known as bus stops, for the buses to stop and collect the passengers and deport those who wish to leave. But someone needs to teach this to the drivers. They seem to think that they have been given some special privileges to stop wherever they want in any way they want. This thing even happens in other cities also, but the intensity is lost when you have a 4 or a 3 (1.5-1.5) lane road. But here, it was more appealing.
Ones we got out of there, the problem was the other drivers. It was or rather is like what my father said. He said, here in India, people seem to think it as a personal insult when they let other people overtake them on the road (Or I should say, when others overtake them… cause most of the times, no one lets you go ahead). He furthur said that the hurry people show on the roads vanishes as soon as they turn themselves to other work. It was foolish. First the road was thin, then those buses and then these people going the wrong way, or, if I may say, poking the noses of their cars where they don’t belong. Then… Traffic Jam. What the hell is going on.
The biggest problem was about the road signs. I mean, how dumb can anyone be? First, there were about a dozen roads in every town along the road, all the same size (Too small) and there wasn’t even a single road sign there. We had to ask people on every crossing for the directions. Moreover, on those few occasions when there were actually some signs, they were painted with spit marks, graphity, posters, election stickers, etc. And about 80% of these signs were after the crossing. I mean, what the hell? Were they put up to show us, IF we were headed the right way? I mean, once we had crossed the road-crossing, there was no turning back unless we were out of town. Idiots. Can’t even say blonds in India…
As I said, all this is surely beneficial for me in one way at the least… I am begging to feel the urge of getting my own chopper very very strong as the days are passing by… Seems my exams results would improve… 
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 25th, 2007 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Article, My Life, My Take. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
