GIVE ME WAY!

It is when the sounds of continuous horns still ringing in your head, while you are having a peaceful shower after a tough expedition from Panjagutta to Kukatpally, that you have surpassed all forms of traffic, tolerated a variety of people who have no clue how to drive and yet are on the streets, and have taken way too much smoke into your nostrils. It is then that you have learnt the ultimate art of driving through the roads of Hyderabad.

Hyderabad? Well, yes. I just described what it is to drive in the city of Nizams. To every Hyderabadi, I am sure this write up relates strongly to the most familiar aspects of your daily life, but to every non Hyderabadi, brace yourselves to read the plight of a common citizen and her muddle with traffic.

When I moved to Hyderabad in 2004, all I heard about this city was its grandeur, its history, its splendid tourist destinations and of course, the lip smacking food.  Yes, that is what perfectly describes the city of Salarjung, but if someone asked me today, apart from these, and probably the first thing I would mention would be “Traffic”. But why hasn’t anybody mentioned this to me back then? Maybe at that point of time, to people traffic was almost nonexistent and merely a trivial thing. Those were good old days when roads were free and less crowded and those were good old days when people used public transport.

Today in 2016, traffic in Hyderabad is what one dreads to the core! As I was driving back home from a hectic day of work today, all that I could do was crib about how things were and secretly curse under my breath. There have been many instances when I just wanted to give up driving and sit on the side of the road, but then my safety? Well, that is another aspect altogether.

I keep wondering if it’s everybody, or just me? Am I the only one who finds millions of potholes on the road and am I the only one who has a problem with buses and autos stopping right in the middle of the road? With an experience of a year’s driving I could classify the different kinds of people you find on a road:

1.      The one who doesn’t know that an indicator exists and that he/she could use it. (well maybe, we should start planting hoardings requesting people to use Indicators)

2.      The one who decides to drive in the worst possible manner, but doesn’t realize that he could see into the rear-view mirror before doing so. (Well, maybe he thinks mirrors are just to see how one looks)

3.      Most annoying are the people who keep honking at a signal. (Next time someone does that to me, I have decided to educate him/her on traffic lights and tell them that red means STOP)

As a common citizen, I could go on rambling about what annoys me, but the most important thing would be to analyze what’s going wrong. For the last two years, I did use public transport for commute, and I thought that was the  most strenuous thing – the process- wait for a bus, board the bus, if you’re lucky you have a seat or have fun standing- adjust to the sudden brakes- bear with the conductor etc. But now I have second thoughts. Driving on my own certainly makes me feel independent, but nothing’s better than public transport.

With metro constructions on almost every road, the already narrow roads have become narrower.  Even after so much thought about this, I still have no clue about what can be done to reduce this. The amount of frustration I experience while I’m driving, I certainly do not want others to. In the last five years, it seems like the roads are being eaten up inch by inch.

After one of the toughest battles with traffic today, I have made up my mind, public transport is my choice!