Friday 12 October 2012

Road Rage

My elder son Prateek: Needs to learn about road rage!



Road rage is a serious problem in countries around the world. Like in most criminal fronts, both juvenile as well as adult, Bhutan doesn’t fare too poorly in this. A couple of years ago, there was a reported case in Paro where two people attempted to see the end of each other as an offshoot of road rage. ‘Having outs’ of smaller dimensions are common in Thimphu, where I live. My friends and relatives from other urban centres can share their tales and woes.

What is road rage?

Road rage is an angry or violent behavior by a driver of a motor vehicle. Such behavior includes rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. In extreme cases, road rage can lead to arguments, assaults, and collisions, which result in injuries and even deaths. It can be thought of as an extreme case of aggressive driving.
What are the signs and symptoms of road rage?

Road rage has many manifestations and incarnations and the following are the most common ones:

·      Aggressive driving, including sudden acceleration, braking, and tailgating.

·      Cutting others off in a lane, or deliberately preventing someone from entering a lane.

·      Chasing other motorists.

·      Flashing lights and/or sounding the horn excessively.

·      Driving at high speeds to terrify other drivers

·      Rude gestures (such as "the finger").

·      Shouting verbal abuses or threats.

·      Intentionally causing a collision between vehicles.

·      Hitting other vehicles.

·      Assaulting other motorists, their passengers, cyclists or pedestrians

·      Exiting the car to attempt to start confrontations, including striking other vehicles with an object.

·      Threatening to use or using a firearm or other deadly weapon (this happened in Paro).


How can we reduce road rage?


Most of us drive. The number of cars and the number of people behind the wheels are increasing by the day in Thimphu. As per RSTA statistics, there are about 36,000 cars and 46,000 driving licenses in Thimphu region. For Bhutan these are big numbers.
It is you and I who engage in road rage and become victims of road rage. It is you and I who can make a difference. Together we can help improve the image of drivers in Thimphu and reduce road rages.  I offer the following by way of suggestions to reduce and eliminate road rages:

a)    Wear a smile on your lip: Positive thoughts lead to positive behaviour and positive actions. The moment we get behind the steering wheel, we should forget any negative thoughts and tensions we may have had at home or at work.  Very often, we behave aggressively on the road because we have been frustrated at work or at home. It could be because your boss advised you to roll up your sleeves or you had an altercation with your spouse.  Come to think of it, it is unfair to pour (and often empty) your frustration on people who have nothing to do with the cause of your frustration. I am not advocating that you should do it on your boss, for it may cost you your job!
So a simple mantra (and quite a workable one at that) is: every time you are in the driver’s seat try and wear a smile on your lips. It doesn’t cost you anything except some Vaseline to heal the cracks!

b)    Let the other be: Many road rages occur because of people who drive rashly. There are people who are in a perpetual hurry. There are also some who want to overtake you with the presumptuous idea of showing off their purportedly bigger and better cars. Then there are trucks and taxis.  Leave them alone! People driving these motors belong to a different generation. Sometimes I wonder if they are dropped from Mars.

Knowing that there are all kinds of ‘funny’ people from the boisterous spoiled brat who wants to advertise his ill-gotten Honda to the wrong-brained taxi driver, what do you do? Join them, beat them, or let them be? I suggest we just let them be! Ignore them; let them overtake you as you trudge up in your hard earned Alto.

c)    Enjoy your driving: The spoilt brat and the taxi driver are in a hurry. You are not!  Enjoy your driving. Put on a nice soothing music. And engage your soul with the music and the lyrics, not with the cacophony of the rude driver honking behind you. With Kenny Rogers  (or who have you?) soulfully gasping on your car stereo, you are less inclined to snarl at the incoming car, or at the one that just overtook you.

Friday brings out the best in people. Enjoy your Friday! Happy Weekend! 


Friday 13 April 2012

Drive to Work


Ever since I moved to DHI, I travel five kilometres every working day to reach office. Another five kilometres down the Changangkha hills and along the outskirt of the RICB colony, unto the entrance to Kalabazaar and along the ring road takes me back home in the evening.

When I reach home, the first thing I notice is the expectant looks on my sons’ faces. They are looking for clues to decide whether their ‘apa’ is in good mood or bad. I make it a point to smile at the boys and call each one of them by their pet names. Buku still likes to snuggle up to me and hug me. Prateek barely extends a hand.

By then, I find that my wife is looking at me expectantly. Like our boys she is also searching for clues. However, she is interested in finding out whether I have had a good lunch or not. Lunch, away from home, can be rarely good. She offers me tea. I usually ask for some anti-oxidant herbal brew.

It is a little past eight in the morning, when I drop my boys at school and head towards upper Motithang. At the Druk School and Kalabazaar junction, traffic is chaotic. Horns are blaring, men are women are snarling, and children shrieking over nearly being crushed by moving motors.

During the five kilometres, I come across a myriad of human faces, characters and automobiles. My old friend Madan pulls his car window down and displays his ‘doma’ stained teeth. I return the greetings, with my own yellowish green. A red car behind Madan doesn’t quite appreciate this camaraderie in the midst of scowling traffic. He honks. The look on his face says it, ‘I have a much bigger car than yours. Get out of my way’.  I drive on and by the time I hit the RICB junction, the road gets narrower. From the opposite direction, I see a young lady come rushing in her velvet Ford Figo. One of her hands is on the steering wheel, while the index finger of the other is deep in her nose. Yuck!  I thought women didn’t pick nose. At least not young and likeable ones.  200 metres on I see madam Tshewang, the highly efficient and energetic principal of Druk School. I wave at her. As usual she doesn’t see or doesn’t care!

By now I am at the base of the Changangkha lhakhang. It is a steep climb. The Maruti Van taxi in front of me has slowed down. I am forced to lower my gears.  I rev up the engine and trudge along the snaky road until Motithang School comes into view. Now, I am almost there. Traffic gets thinner and the road broader. My Hyundai i20 heaves a sigh of relief. Another drive successfully maneuvered. 

Monday 19 March 2012

Where are you from?



Some shots from the visit to my ancestral village - Dec 2013

Been living in Thimphu, the capital city of Bhutan for over twenty years now. What a time! This has been the longest that I have lived anywhere. 

I first came to Thimphu in March 1983, when the Ministry of Education sent me to Yangchenphug Central School in class IX after the completion of class VIII at Pema Gatshel Junior High School. To a small boy from remote Bhangtar, Thimphu was a big town even then. It is bigger today.

I completed my Bachelor studies in 1990 and arrived in Thimphu in July that year to attend the national graduates orientation and driglam namzha programme. I took shelter with kaka Rabilal Pokhrel, who is my ‘sadu daju’ today. As they say in Nepali, 'the wild cockroach chased away the domestic one' and soon I was the legitimate tenant at Ap Phochu house, Metog Lam, Thimphu. That was 1993. 

I left Metog Lam at the end of February 2010 and moved to DSB building. Where? Above the Call Centre, behind Hotel Holiday Home. It is where Changzamtog ends and Changbangdu begins. The immediate premise is dusty and dirty, but the apartment is likeable. 

People often ask me, 'where are you from'? ‘Neoly....Bhangtar....Samdrup Jongkhar...', I reply. But then, I have now lived longer in Thimphu than anywhere else. When I cross Semtokha or Babesa on return from my tours to other parts of Bhutan or from abroad, I feel I am home. Where I live is not my own house, it is DSB’s. But then, even in Neoly, where I have my census, I don’t have a house. Home is where the heart is, as they say. And my heart is in Thimphu. It is, after all, where I work and live, and it is where the people, who matter the most to me today, live.