Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Road-bummers

This morning at around 9.30 a.m., I met with around 40-50 morons. All in one shot. Yes, they were all driving westward bound on St. Mary's Road. They had formed at least 4 parallel lanes of which 3 were unauthorised. Poor me, going eastward on St. Mary's Road as usual and was suddenly confronted head-on by 4 lanes of vehicles acting like no rules existed.

Bah. Being a lone woman driver and afraid for myself(and not for any nobler reason), I steered clear of expletives but insisted on asking them with angry, wild gestures "WHAT in the world ARE you doing?". At one point, I was quite unnerved because I was the only car facing the 'right' way on my side of the road, while all the rest in front of me were facing me and trying to bully me to go...where, I don't really know. Where was the space? Suddenly I wondered whether this road had been made a one-way overnight or something. I took heart in the fact that there was a possibility I was right, since some vehicles were right behind me.
(Imagine, they had me doubting my rule-abiding senses!)

I tried to nudge through aggressively and am quite surprised how no one bumped or scratched me. Sheer good luck, I tell you.

Then, I finally decided I could not beat them -- the rogues! So, I swung extreme left and managed to get out of that quagmire of morons and shot out of there like a bat out of hell (Hah! always wanted to use that bat expression!).

I spotted a policeman further down and asked him what the heck was going on and whether the road was a one way to which he said nope. So, I was even more indignant and told him to go sort out the chaos. Thankfully, he understood my frustration. (In chennai, you cannot ask for more, usually.)

Mildly satisfied with dispensing a piece of advice to a cop, I belligerently ignored the red light and the waiting motorists whose green signal it was, and swung into a lane leading to my destination,
secure in the knowledge that no one was going to pull me up after what I had been through.

Nobody did.:)

Cheers.