Road Rage, Call center Cabs & Prejudices

Flashy cars, flashy mobiles and precariously hung laptop bags define the city of Bangalore today. Congested and traffic riddled roads define the geographical entity called Bangalore. Road rages and impatient drivers define the trait of a stressed out Bangalorean.

The city, which has become the back office of the world, has for some time been bursting in its seams thanks to an influx of migrant knowledge workers.

Compounding the traffic woes is the omni present ‘call center cabs’- an imposing sight in your rear view mirror is a Qualis breathing down your neck, packed with 5-8 people either setting off to work or going back home to give their haphazard body and bio clock some rest. Rash and reckless driving by these professional drivers have led to an increase in road rages and accidents in Bangalore.

Something in me ticks when I see these call center cabs. That something is most often ticked by the drivers who have not an aorta of patience and have an uncanny knack of cutting in front of you, on the side and given a chance, above you also. Gone are days when drivers where a gentlemanly lot and adhered to basic road courtesies. The new breed has time for anything.

Playing the devil’s advocate (does he need one?), Transport providers have time deadlines to keep and they need to reach people to office and back in the allotted time. Their revenues depend on how many trips they can make in a day. This leads to a direct increase in the workload and pressure of the hapless drivers. For them, the day does not end when it ends for us-drivers have to report back and are sent out on the next assignment straight away.

Which makes me imagine- “If driving down airport road one time in a day can make me feel restless and sometimes reckless, it isn’t difficult to imagine the plight of the drivers and why they are reckless.

I still blame the drivers for reckless driving, but let us all acknowledge that they are also stressed out Bangaloreans driving not for fun, but to drive their personal lives in some direction

Citizen Jeevez (Which is me!)

Comments

Rajeswari said…
Poor B'loreans!Lion's share of their lives are sandwiched between traffic jam!
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Jeevez said…
HO HA HA!

Look who's talking!

I always like gutsy Dubaites talking about traffice jams.

Guess Scrawler has never been on the Dubai-Sharjah highway early morning!!

Look who's talking abt traffic jams!!!
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Rajeswari said…
That was just an empathetic expression(reaction) of a Dubaite towards B'loreans :)

Dubaites live in Traffic jams!
Thursday, October 09, 2008
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

AK / BB / RN :)

Q. Whats common between Aamir Khan / Big B / Rajiv Narayan? A. All three are bloggers We are all starry eyed. We all look up at Hollywood stars more than we look upto to the heavens above. We want to know what he/she has done today. We all want to read what Aamir Khan and Big B has to say in their blogs.. We all do not want to read what Rajiv Narayan thinks/does! Well, suffice to say that i wouldnt mind the bouquets and the brickbats.. So come read me and leave ur impressions in the comments box... Well, who am I talking to???? :) PS: I dont have a dog named after someone which keeps licking my toes!
Read more

Sorry State of Affairs

I chanced upon a CBSE Social Studies textbook for Class VIII yesterday while my wife was preparing teaching notes for the kids at school. Observations from that exercise: If the syllabus in a text book is a reflection of our academic system, CBSE has been successful in shocking me. I am dismayed at the extremely superficial nature of what is being taught in schools. While there are arguments that the all studies up to Class 10 need only be superficial, I fail to understand the logic behind it.. Most of the time, the school years are spent studying, not learning. In retrospect, I feel that even if kids are just studying (and not learning!), it remains with you the rest of your life. Proof of the pudding was that, I was able to explain to my wife the background of the Mughal empire, the key distinguishing features of most of the rulers and their contributions in detail. All this, from my memory. A little bit of googling around confirmed that I was bang on! Textbooks are supposed to provi
Read more

Poladiasis

“An affliction which makes you say the wrong thing at the right time” Very few people are endowed with the ability of saying the wrong thing at the right time. Here are a sample few from real life: “I have in the last 2 months found out how much politics is prevalent in our office” (rightly said, but in a common platform and with the boss also around!) “Wow! U had a fracture!” “Oh s***, you don’t need to use the crutches again?” This is classic Poladic stuff- most of the time you cannot make such statements and get away with it. But there are some remarkable people who can make such statements and carry on as if nothing has happened. You need to be absolutely innocent to continually be afflicted with Poladiasis. Or at the bare minimum, you need to project the image to the world that you are completely innocent! I have, thanks to the lady, enriched the English language with a new word. Lets all together have more definitions added for the word to keep it alive!!! PS: I’ve found another
Read more