this was supposed to be written as 2 different posts...
now it's getting squeezed into 1 :)
When i was in US and was applying to driving license, one of the nerve wrenching moments was writing Online test as part of the Driving License process.
It's not because the test was difficult or something, but because quite a few of my colleagues flunk in the test for no particular reason... and even flunking was really no big deal, but the experience of coming back to office and facing all the teasing(sometimes mocking) smiles from few fellow colleagues was not a good one :) (yes, cracking the test and getting license used to be a big deal like cracking CAT!!)
So we really do end up in trying to read the Driving License Manual or handbook thoroughly...
And one thing that always surprised me about that book was the Precision with which few details were written in that book or atleast projected that way...
Here is one for ex, (i searched the net to get the free online manual, but couldn't get one)
The distance between your car and the car in front of you should be equivalent to the distance which can be covered in your current driving speed with the time taken to say the numbers 200 and 201.
i might have got the number wrongs, but the idea is the same and it really surprised me to see to what extent these guys have gone to make things perfect.
Also one of the things which i didn't understand on reading for the first time was DUI. when i asked my colleague,he mentioned that it's Driving Under Influence...
and the word influence doesn't only imply Alcohol and other stuff, but also other things which might cause you a loss in mental stability. One classic example which often happens in our great country is "when one individual cuts and drives past us, we really get annoyed and honk out our anger or in extreme cases, try and repeat the same with him".
This is exactly the incident which i saw last thursday.
In one of the four road intersection, a bike guy (from east) was taking a left turn and a maruti alto guy (from west) took a right turn by just cutting across bike guy. (And i was driving behind these guys and ended up witnessing these events.) Bike guy was completely annoyed. He turned and looked at me as if to indicate that how stupid that car guy had driven past him. Now we both were in left lane and the car guy was driving in right.
Then suddenly the bike guy started driving fast and overtook the car walla by moving from left lane to right lane :) I was amazed to see the force with which the bike guy did this. Infact the car was forced to slow down due to the bike in front of it. And when the car tried to move from right lane to left lane, the bike as well tried to move.
And this continued for next few minutes till the biker took a turn in the next corner.
I am not sure whether the car guy understood why the biker was behaving that way.
But it was surprising to see how the biker showed his annoyance to the car guy. Infact the biker had not even thought of any repercussions that might happen due to his action. What if the car guy had just hit him instead of stepping on the break?
And for me, it looked as if the biker has taken too much of unnecessary risk to show his annoyance, which infact is not worth taking for this incident...
Maybe thats why it's called DUI when rational thinking is kept aside for a while :)
Now coming to the second incident...this is something which doesn't happen often for us :) ;)
It was raining heavily yesterday morning around 8.30am. I was supposed to meet a friend of mine at 9am and the meeting place was just around 1.5 km from my place.
So i decided to walk instead of driving, which i later realized to be a terrible mistake, thanks to the water on the road and to the cars driving on the road in that water.
Because when it comes to driving in a water clogged road, really these car people neither care about the pedestrians nor about the fellow 2 wheelers. Atleast when we are a 2 wheeler we get an option to either to drive along or at a distance to the other cars in the road. But at that time of the day,as a pedestrian we are subjected to the brunt of few cars splashing away in the road.
And after a while,thanks to the complete water clogged road, i was unable to take the foot path and ended up walking along the road divider on the opposite direction. So it was easy to see the cars which were coming in front and walk accordingly by avoiding the water pools.
Then came one particular place where the water was clogged for quite some distance and a few meters ahead, saw a white Octavia coming at a fast speed in the road. I actually stopped walking and tried to move to the left as much as possible. And the water pool ended just before where i was standing.
Then came this car and when the driver came near he tried to slow his car and ended up bringing it to a complete halt :)
as far as my movie knowledge goes,this scene is yet to be taken in any movie and now the sole copyright is with me ;)
yes, the car stopped just adjacent to me and the guy inside the car was talking on a phone and gave a smart smile towards me(probably appreciating himself that he didn't splash water atlast). I was able to see him clearly because i was walking along the road divider and hence was standing towards his right.
I was actually stunned at this unexpected twist of event and also highly annoyed because this stupid person, dressed in white, was sitting inside such a comfortable car and me standing in the water clogged road with a stupid umbrella.
Then, as it always in real life, i walked past the car and continued my journey towards the meeting place. :) :)
But this is really one kind of an incident which doesn't happen to us always...
And when i think of it, it does make me smile :)
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