Fools' day

The name , “Perungalathur” has a certain ring to it. If you are someone residing in Chennai then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. YES. The seemingly harmless locality which takes incredibly 3 hours or more to cross on a Friday evening. The situation is grave enough that if you board a bus on Koyambedu and seemingly sleep long enough for you to think you would’ve reached Trichy, only to find out that you haven’t even crossed Perungalathur yet. I wish I was kidding, but no.

So who’s to blame for the insufferable traffic bottleneck?? The government? The private buses that run rampant? The poor traffic constable?  Before we start the blame game let’s take a look at ourselves first.

People of the current generation are literally scurrying about, without sparing a second to think things through. Let’s start with the level crossing. A closed gate indicates an approaching train and we are meant to wait for it to pass by. But do we?

Forget the pedestrians, even bikers tilt their two wheelers (oh so skillfully!?)  across the closed gate hoping to beat the train. What harm can a wait for couple of minutes do? It’s not the end of the world yet, is it?  

And the worst case?? People listening to their earphones or those engrossed in mobiles. They don’t even look where they are walking! The train isn’t going to come to a halt when you appear in front of it out of nowhere and that’s the bitter truth.

If you think railway level crossings are too much trouble, the roads don’t fare better either.  Vehicles speed off in the wrong direction, not allowing us to ride freely. Those erring drivers even dare to chastise us, should we ever get on their wrong side (pun intended).  And in the honorable national highways, one can see vehicles switching lanes without so much a hand signal or indicator sign.

Stopping for a red traffic light on a busy road is also frowned upon, as impatient riders honk their horns incessantly, conveying their displeasure at us actually following the rules.

 An ambulance gains no sympathy either, as the very people denying a path for it forget that they too, one day, could be inside the ominous vehicle with blaring sirens, dead or alive.

Those who walk to my office tend to cross the road suddenly as a big group, halting the vehicles which have successfully conquered the dreaded bottleneck only to come to a rude stop shortly after.

Accidents just don’t happen. We cause them to happen. Sadly, many among us fail to realize that and it’s up to us to fend for ourselves. So, in this unforgiving world, to people like you and me who care to follow the traffic rules, the good Samaritans if you will ,  I wish you Happy April Fools ’ Day.