Highlighting the lack of traffic sense of our dearly beloved Indian brothers & sisters – I can go on and on with their utter lack of “what to do” on the roads. They come to Goa, hire jeeps and bikes which fall cheaper than engaging taxis. This is understandable. But they pack about 8 of themselves, sometimes 10, in a jeep, one standing at the centre, with beer bottles and cans in hand and dancing while swinging the bottles and cans from one hand to the other, while singing and clapping loudly like ruffians.
On draining the beer to the last drop, the empty bottles or cans are flung along the roadside. Whether these projectiles hit someone or land in someone’s compound (like it happened to me – a bottle missed my car parked in my compound) is none of their concern. They want directions to where they go, so STOP in the middle of the road and shoot questions to anyone they see that looks like a human being and expect decent answers. The bikers, not too far off from being manner less – ride with a wife, a teenage child in the middle and an infant standing on the foot board. Sometimes two of them on one, sitting back to back, shooting videos on their mobiles or cameras. They suddenly stop to ask for directions, oblivious that other vehicles are following them. They stop in the middle of the roads, three bikes alongside in a row taking half the road to themselves. What sort of road sense is this? Some of them who come in their own four wheelers park their vehicles either at the entry or exit of bus bays thus blocking our local buses from using these bays. No understanding of what bus bays are for and that their entry and exit points need to be free at all times.
I personally take risks and tell them to either park their bikes along the roadside, move their four wheelers from entry or exit of bus bays, etc. I can’t do anything about the jeeps zooming by with rowdies and ruffians, throwing away empty bottles. And all this happens in front of the very eyes of traffic policemen who stand along the roadsides either viewing something, sending messages, chatting or talking on their mobile phones…. When will our traffic authorities learn and act? Which age are they waiting for? I don’t wish bad for anyone, but I hope the bottles and cans don’t land on the traffic police when they are on duty but not paying attention to what goes on around them.
