Confessions of a Car racer!

Are you human? If you are.. you will definitely ponder over after reading this blog! I am that common man who is observing the society changing with times and also changing with it! And this article just shows what I saw and feels what I felt.

I came to Bangalore 5 years back. I instantly fell in love with this city.. so green and peaceful. If I can say it was peaceful 5 years back.. I am sure most of you who are born and brought up here would completely agree with me that it was heaven even earlier than that. As days passed, I had already decided to settle here and so started searching for a job. My first stay was in kormangala and I was so fascinated with the place as we had a big garden just 2 minutes away from our house and the surrounding greenery just added to the aura. Mornings used to be little sunnier with slight haziness in the air due to mist. I used to observe so many elderly people and some younger (self-motivated) people passing by my house to go to the nearby garden to jog. And adding to the cheer.. used to pass a lariwala who could hardly understand my language.. shouting ‘suppo’… again adding to the greenery by selling green vegetables:) Ah! What a start of the day…! Everything just used to seamlessly gel with the surrounding. What else you needed to call this city a green paradise!

Then as days… months.. passed, I got busy with my job. It used to be fun going to office in the pleasant weather, listening to music, chatting with friends, playing games and sometimes even catching a cat nap in the office bus. Gradually I got so busy with the work, friends and family that forgot to enjoy those small things which had made me stay in Bangalore!!! Then one day my mum forced me to buy a car.. it’s true that I did not wanted to buy a car myself! But my mum was really fond of seeing me driving the car. So.. I bought a car. And here I was.. driving to office in my car. I started liking the idea of going to office in car as it gave real flexibility. Also I slowly discovered that I was good at driving when I started beating other cars in the race!! Yes you heard it right… race. I always felt that Bangalore was never built with the idea of making it an Indian silicon valley.. but was more of an old man’s paradise. The roads are not the F1 tracks.. they are the normal Indian roads with potholes. Racing on such roads is riskier many times! But then who thinks so much.. when you have steering in your hands and the josh to fly.. who looks back? Just race.. race and race! Oh god.. I was so much enjoying the rides on the roads. And then there was no looking back.. I never went back to my office bus!


I continued with my routine until one day I realized. Me and my mum always used to go out shopping together. That day also we both were going to shop as usual. She had developed some leg pain and was not able to walk so confidently. I suddenly realized that she needed my support. Being with her, we both were just about to cross the road when a rash car driver at its top speed almost brushed her aside! She did not fall.. I was there. I could not say a single word but just stood there in shock. I could not believe that any person cannot stop for a second to allow a limping person cross the road! I believe you do not need to experience everything in this world to correct what you are doing wrong. Even I used to read of road rage incidents… a lady being physically hit by a driver because she overtook the bus in Delhi.. I still remember this incident. I cursed myself. How could not I see things going wrong around me? BECAUSE I had become a part of it!!!!! Things changed after that…
I started noticing things around me which were not visible to me when I was busy racing!

I see old people (somebody’s parents) struggling to cross roads just because nobody is ready to waste their single minute by allowing them to cross!!

I see a small kid on his way to school on bicycle brushed to the extreme corner of the footpath by a speeding car and then again being honked by another car just waiting behind his bicycle to throw him off the road!

I see a old man driving his old scooter and being honked and yelled by auto-drivers, cab wallahs and the so-called educated civilized citizens to move aside otherwise they are even ready to hit him down!

I see the poor man who is going on his cycle with his entire family on it (4 people on a single cycle)… trying to drop his children to school, wife to work and trying hard to reach his workplace on time.. being pushed to the edges of footpath by the cars and left to wait till all the impatient drives pass by!

I see and cannot hide the tears when an ambulance is stuck in traffic trying hard to make way and when the traffic opens, I see humans.. cannot believe my eyes but I see… we humans rushing ahead of the ambulance and sometimes blocking its way! Have we stopped valuing life just because it’s not ours?!

I have now made a point. I now see and I now do my best to bring the change that I can bring. I know everyone of us can. I have seen.. We.. yes we drive so perfectly without breaking any rule on US roads.. but drive so careless on Indian roads. We praise foreign countries for the perfect traffic system but forget to do our little to make Indian traffic system perfect.. My heart aches when people say India ka kuch nahi ho sakta.. Is this country not yours? Is that old man crossing the road can never be your parent? Is that kid on bicycle can never be your kid? God forbid.. but the person in ambulance..??? It’s never late to realize. We do not need to experience everything in this world to correct what we are doing wrong. I can say with surety because I was one of you. I know we all are humans.. we just need to ponder a little over those little things which we forget to see.. which I forget to see. But no… no more! I wish… I hope.. and I am sure you all will agree with me. And we all will now not only see but also do our little to improve ourselves.