Because Darling, Roads Don't Belong to our Fathers

I have come to that part of life where Fridays and Mondays feel like a pair of twins. There is always work to do, deadlines to meet, excel sheets to be filled, reports to be submitted, mails to be read, mails to be answered and notes to be written to ‘self’ so that Monday doesn’t feel like first day of job at a new workplace. That was how yesterday ended.

I treated myself to a little cab ride back home because only someone who takes 45 minutes to reach 4 kilometres understands what a luxury that is… that too on a delightfully young Friday evening. We moved slow (ketchup-sloooooowww) snaking throw the traffic, disgracing the follow-one-lane rule when a friend called up to chat. ‘Perfect’, I thought! That’s all I needed. As I sank back in the backseat of the car with a lazy sigh and crossed my leg in the sheer comfort of having nothing to worry about… there it was! He jumped the red signal with a sharp right turn leading my phone to fly up in the air and half of me thrown on the right with a jerk. He managed this quick stunt to escape the approaching wave of drivers with revving engines and blood-thirsty accelerators. Once safe on the other side of the street, I glanced back to only imagine what could have been… had we missed a second there.

I screamed involuntarily at him with fright and anger fizzing out of me. I pointed the rules and consequences of breaking them, trying to bring some sense in his mind. Waiting for a response for a full minute, I realise he has not heard a word of my protest because he’s got a set of earplugs on and is busy on a call. I screamed louder this time and this driver simply goes, “Yea I know… there’s nothing to worry about.”

The next thing I know he’s trying to run over people and honking incessantly  even when the road is absolutely clear. On yet another signal he stopped (by God’s grace) but far ahead of the zebra line. I gritted my teeth and congratulated him for being considerate enough to leave the zebra crossing for pedestrians. I even suggested we might as well go since we had already broken a traffic rule and were now an obstacle for the drivers who wanted to go that way. However, we continued to halt in the middle of road like cattle left unattended. At least they are productive.

We still had a long way to go but my patience was running out due to the rash driving. I don’t even drive this rash in video games but this guy was in some kind of competition with other unknown drivers. I knew I wanted to punch him in the face when he went point blank in the direction of a helpless street dog. The dog was lucky it survived by an inch, but for me it was too much to take.

The cab came to an abrupt halt on my demand after its tyres screeched in objection. I thanked him for the 20 minute memorable drive and got down even when home was nowhere near. He looked resentful and hurt like a lover dumped by his partner. He asked several questions and begged me to come back but his voice faded away as I continued to walk home.

I could have written a feedback on the app, I could have caught the traffic police’s attention and complained, I could have rated him with one star, I could have raised my voice showing anger, which I did… but just refusing and boycotting such services felt like the right thing to do.

I hope he is clever enough to understand the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of the situation. I hope that he will be kind on the next passengers and care for everyone on the road, humans and animals alike.

And lastly, I hope that he doesn’t miss out on the things he did and instead warn his fellow cab drivers of a crazy screaming girl who walked out in the middle of nowhere!