Imagine you are driving on a busy road, lets say Airport Road, or even better - Outer Ring Road, at a speed of around 60-70 kph ... not REALLY FAST, but speed enough for you not to be able to stop with emergency breaks within 5 metres ... suddenly, out of nowhere a middle aged guy is on the street, walking to cross it, pretty much in line with your car, he is around 10 meters away. The best part is he is not in a hurry to cross the road, you are at a considerable speed, there's traffic behind you, this is not a place someone should cross the road, but this guy is right in front of you and you are losing microseconds to make a decision to stop or dodge to save this guy ... but you are wondering ... "Whose responsibility is it?" What answer did you get? This guy is crossing the road where he is not supposed to, he is the one who chose to jump in the middle of fast moving traffic to cross the road, for no emergency at all, so this guy should be responsible for his actions? Sounds about right? ... WRONG!!!Did you observe that he "didn't look at you, your car or any of the traffic that is moving towards him" (which could possibly run him over)? So that is the catch in this situation, he looks away so you know he is not "technically" aware that there's a car or a few cars, a bus and 2 trucks moving towards him. Hence the responsibility of saving him (or not running him over) is yours. He has looked away so he is not responsible anymore. Don't you love it when a total stranger trusts you with his life? This technically proves we have been able to achieve the best form of co-existence in the history of mankind ... where one doesn't think twice before entrusting a stranger with one's life. For the one's who have accepted this as a way of life and are moving on, and love this passing on of responsibility ... Congratulations!!! You have attained Moksha... you have happiness at your feet ... Nothing can shake you ... I bow in Thy mighty presence :)For the more worldly ones, like me, who tend to get hassled by the burden of this responsibility of saving another person's life, who himself doesn't care about it much ... you need to know why you shouldn't run this guy over. Here are some reasons that kind of convinced me ... might help you as well.- You have a conscience that will not let you breathe easy if your car even touched this guy and he got some bruises and cuts
- If you hit this guy just because he was too close and you couldn't dodge or break, you are the one with the car so it's your fault ... there are no two ways because the mob that would gather would only see who has the bigger vehicle, and compared to a man that's walking, you are the clear choice of who the mob will lynch.
- If these 2 reasons weren't enough, consider what would happen if the police come there before you could escape with some cuts and bruises, you will have to shell out huge sums of money to direct them elsewhere, which is possible because money is why they would come too ... but will set you back quite a few thousands
So my friends, the moral of the story is ... don't expect any sense responsibility from anyone on the streets of Bangalore, you are responsible for their lives and yours too. You cannot expect to convince anyone with logic or the traffic rules, because lets face it, the Traffic police aren't aware of these rules much. That's a different story altogether.
Anyways so lets take an oath that we would live and die for the mankind that has entrusted you with their life. Always remember that with Great Responsibility (like this) comes Very Little Power :)
