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Hyderabad and Secunderabad, the twin cities of the erstwhile Nizam, famous for its Biriyani, pearls and rock formations, have something new to boast of. No, I am not referring to the new International airport coming up in Shamshabad, or the controversial Outer Ring Roads.
This is a new specie .....
I love driving, it is one of my passions, I drive around 4000+ KM for every of my yearly summer vacations. On the other hand, I only have to commute a small distance of around 10 KM each way to work, and that too through the relatively less traffic dense Secunderabad cantonment.
Even this route has become a pain to drive through now.
The main reason for this is the sudden appearance of the above-mentioned specie on our roads.
I am sure that the Interventionists are right on the appearance of this species, over the Evolutionists. The mutation, development and proliferation took just a couple of years, and now our roads are filled with them.
I used to get really annoyed with the behavior of this new species, that is, till a couple of days ago when I had an opportunity to look at their behavior from a different perspective.
The scene:
It is late in the evening, around 8.30PM, Saturday, and I am still stuck in the office. The machine hums on, trying to compile that day’s code, and I am already late for the weekend party. Finally my work gets over at around 8.45, and I am ready to go home.
The cantonment traffic is sparse, and I settle down to a slow cruising speed. I normally drive with my headlamps dipped. The road is narrow but reasonably straight without much of curves and hidden bends. And then I see one of them, at least a kilometer away, coming in the opposite direction, with the headlights on full blast. I flash my head beams once to let him know that he is blinding me – no response from the other vehicle.
I flash my head beams again – no response.
This continues for half a dozen times, and he is near, I am blinded and furious.
I take my vehicle into the middle of the road, block his passage, and stop my vehicle.
Again I flash my head beams – no response form the other vehicle!!!
I am more furious, get out of my vehicle, and approach the other vehicle.
The driver of the vehicle lowers his front window glass. A young chap with an idiotic smile.
“Dip the head lamp you Mafoi* B@$$@$d.” I yell at him.
“Sir, this vehicle does not have that facility” – the guy responds very earnestly.
Till then I had not noticed which vehicle he was driving. I looked from close quarters, and...
saw a brand new Hundai Santro, maybe a couple of months out from the showroom...
...and I burst out laughing, all my ferocity vanished in a jiffy.
He gave me a confused look, and I had to explain the functionality of the lever which controls the head light beam.
I was in a hurry, and we went on our own ways. I learned a lesson, do not get worked up unnecessarily, there is humor all around us, we just need to tune in....
This got me thinking...many a times, it is the members of this new found species which creates untoward miseries to everyone who happens to share the road with them. This particular sub-specie is the “idiotic neo-rich vehicle owner”.
I will apply the theories of taxonomy on this species, and, will try to categorise them properly as and when I encounter a new type. Being in the twin cities is a blessing – there will not be any dearth of specimens.
*The euphemistic term I use instead of the common 12 letter English word, denoting those who have introduced recursion into their genealogy.
rk@ 2015
Photo by Eugene Triguba on Unsplash