Everyday I come across instances where I have to give way to other road users, either while I drive my car or the 2-wheeler. I normally give way to others and dont indulge in one-upmanship on the road. I have always faced questions from people as to why I am giving way to all others. So why do I have to do that? I do it to avoid confrontation as well as to avoid getting tensed on the road. I also believe waiting for another 10 seconds is not going to change the world upside down. This is also one of the reasons why I have been able to practise "Honk-free Driving" as well. But at times, I also do lose patience when somebody behaves irresponsibly on the road. I shout at them without hesitating, which makes my son very uncomfortable, if he is around. He asks me why I have to fight on the road? I try to explain to him that it is not a fight but I dont think he has a great opinion about his father on this.
There are times, you are pleasantly surprised by the acts of the fellow road users, particularly, when you give way to them. Yes, few acknowledge your generosity and say "Thank you". Yesterday, there were couple of instances where I have to wait or even reverse back my car by few metres to enable them to proceed. The drivers of the other car instantly acknowledged my patience and my generosity and said a loud "thank you", which I felt came truly from their heart. I felt very happy and satisfied. I also felt very proud to have helped others. The feeling is fantastic and I would urge you to say "thank you" whenever somebody deserves it. I know thank you as a word has been used quite casually in our daily lives but I guess we should use it judiciously and should also be more expressive than it being just a lip movement. Good things come to you in circle, so go out and spread the message of saying "thank you".
Have you experienced the feeling of somebody genuinely saying "thank you" to you for your kind-heartedness on the road?
5 comments:
In western world, its very common to give a hand gesture to say Thanks when some one is kind to you on the road.
For e.g) if a car waits for a pedestrian to cross on a normal road, the pedestrian acknowledges the help by raising his hand.
Thats true.. some sort of acknowledgement would be highly appreciated..
Here Dubai also, we use hand gesture to say thank you or ask the pedestrians to cross even though there is no signal. Asians in general, mostly will not give that much respect (compared to western expats)to pedestrians.
Here driving in general is Honk-free. (mostly windows are rolledup due to heat or a/c is on).
Most irritating factor here is, lane jumping, nobody wants to follow the queue in road.
As you rightly told, in 10-20 minutes, world is not going to change.
A very good write-up. Everything you said is right ! I would also add that if we can car pool and/or use the public transport, life could get better. Lesser the traffic even lesser the road rage !! Besides one has always the company in the vehicle to chat and let not the outside situation bother !!
Ur suggestions are great but i guess the problem could be solved by car pooling which seems to be hardly practised here. :-)
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