Courtesy on the Road

Pawan Verma

From the quizzical look I received from the girl, I was pretty sure that she had got my signals entirely wrong. Driving through the thick of traffic on the Delhi University campus one fine afternoon, as I found the car coming from the opposite direction, stuck up in the middle of the road, I had slowed down and given it a headlight signal – which meant, please cross over.

But it left the young lady driving the vehicle entirely confused. As I moved past after waiting for a few moments, her angry looks made it clear that the damsel in distress was indeed a damsel in distrust.

Unable to decipher the road signal right, she had doubted my intensions to flash the lights on her. But for my wife Neelima sitting by my side, the lady could have charged me with teasing.

The incident reminded me of a similar experience while driving through the streets of Patna. Being an avid supporter of good road sense, I had stopped my car to allow half a dozen school kids, on their way to school, to cross the road. While I fondly remember the gleam in their eyes on this gesture, I still cannot forget the massive protest honking from behind, which my humane gesture had aroused.

Truly, in a society unused to the finer aspects of driving etiquettes, such consternations are quite understandable. The reverse of it is equally true. I very vividly remember, when during my stay at Mauritius, one particular morning, while driving the car as I blew the horn asking for passage, I was dismayed to find that I had created a minor commotion on the road.

Very soon I was to learn that signaling through the headlight was the more acceptable method on the island roads. The lovely little Mauritius, where I spent nearly four years of my life is often referred to as “Little India”. But the big brother India has quite a few things to learn from its younger sibling, particularly in areas like traffic management, attitudes to life and driving etiquettes.

In the background of my experiences in India, it was so refreshing to find even Cabinet Ministers there, driving around without any security and without causing any dislocation of public traffic. One day when we had invited the Finance Minister, Mr. Lutchmeenaraidoo for a dinner with our top marketing professionals, he surprised us by his simplicity.

As he got down from the car along with his beautiful American wife, he took out a Rs. 200 note from his wallet and gave it to his driver to have buffet dinner, arranged elsewhere in the hotel. While going back he asked the driver to take the rear seat and drove off with his wife by his side.

Similar sportiveness is also reflected in the driving etiquettes in which even the VIPs excel. It is quite common to find someone driving in top gear, slow down and beckon a vehicle on the side road to join the mainstream.

I was once pleasantly surprised to receive such a gesture from no less a person than the Prime Minister Aneerood Jugnauth, whose BMW slowed down to allow me join the main road, leaving in the process his two pilot motorcycles in a bit of momentary confusion.

It is true, in life we tend to give to people what we receive from others. A gesture of grace and courtesy can generate ripples of happiness among others which could multiply and come back to us in some form or the other, sooner or later.