An Alter Ego while driving?

I am certainly uncertain whether it is apposite to tag this article, either loosely or raggedly, with the term Alter Ego.

But with the support of my immature limbs of linguistic competence, I am connoting an alter ego to a set of different behaviours demonstrated in some situations by any people. And particularly this time, in the spotlight of driving.

Having been driving to the workplace from my home on a daily dose of 14.9 miles, by now, I felt like I have neared the equatorial belt of South Africa. And at the end of this academic tenure, I will be drenched with a feeling that I conquered the journey to the world in 180 days.

Well, I am not vomiting any resentment of my life here. 

Ever since I learned how difficult it is to acquire human life, I have put an end to this life of impermanence to weigh against each other. So basically I don’t equate my life with others because at best, I am reminded of a story, where a shoe-less man stops complaining about his life after seeing another without a leg. Our living has to be sustained in our own ways, as destined or fated, big or small. Hence, in my mind, this mundane observation does not stir any startling wave of inconvenience.  

But what is so bothersome is a kind of drama I witness frequently on the theatre of the highway performed by our professional motorists. Even those licensed drivers (sorry taxi drivers), who are mandated to protect themselves, passengers or pedestrians by following a set of transport guidelines overlook the traffic rules once they journey into a network, unreachable from the web of traffic cops. Due to this roadside fuss, driving in the early morning, breaking the silent virgin of the dawn is the only thing I wish for, as I don’t suffer from any hiccups of driving wrath owing to the limited interface of other vehicles. But by evening, on my return, I would witness the identical incidences of driving transgressions on different screens of the motorway. 

A case in point as soon as the temporary roadblock caused due to widening works is lifted, vehicles from both directions would speedily marathon to access the highway. In such circumstances, that mandated traffic rules of vehicles moving down the hills which should otherwise hang on, in favour of vehicles climbing the higher gradient, becomes a forgotten traffic decree. 

Consequently, all the vehicles remain congested and jammed, almost immovable even by an inch. The only space to free from such mobbing is to fly off the cliff, which nobody would be willing. That is the time where drivers from the opposite directions would pursue to indoctrinate one another to give the way, by describing a promising heavenly space even when there is just a hell inviting gap. No drivers would accept their miscarriage of traffic guidelines, but instead, argue their purpose of driving as complete urgency and exigent.

Sometimes, my wild imaginations can’t fathom the risk involved in getting thronged on our highways. Just imagine the situation getting stuck during monsoon season (but only the eyes washed with tears can see better) on a narrow highway pitched on the mountains, especially at this time when our roads are prostituting with copious road widening works. 

With sharp cuttings that are landslide-inviting above, and itching baldness of cliff below, my goodness! we can almost define impermanence within that short moment even without the help of any spiritual guru. Such surreal feelings aggravate our already unenlightened minds to blame one another for ensuring a situation of a particular sort, almost trespassing on personal matters, and thereby lose our focus in solving the road problem.

But if we do not invite our ego to take the driver’s seat, immense of those minute problems can be halved or solved by manifold. This trend of wild driving is biologically defined, undergoes silent mutation in our society today. Although it takes place in a very subtly negligible and almost unnoticeable manner, they are yet equally deleterious and worrying.

“Take it easy driving- the life you save may be mine” – James Dean