There are all sorts of drivers out there

 Another story - another day

Driving back from an exhausting meeting a few weeks ago, three things happened in a span of an hour that set me thinking. There are some careless and irresponsible drivers out there, and then there are some bizarre clowns.

The first was ‘actually’ a first for me, and something I had never seen before. A man in a rather weather-beaten Honda Civic, was first tailgating and then flashing an ambulance!

Now I am not sure whether the ambulance had an occupant or not, but that is beside the point. The audacity of the act itself, took me by surprise. Not only is tailgating a punishable offence but flashing an ambulance should soon be added to the list if it is not already there. It is just not on & I consider it the height of impudence.

The second was a rather humongous vehicle, a tanker of some sorts, with about 16 wheels, which was carrying some hazardous liquid - all 36,000 litres of it. It had the word ‘DANGER’ printed in large red letters on both sides. I would like to believe I am quite a prudent & cautious driver, but the guy of the vehicle in question, was either a novice or else, like me at times - had a poor sense of direction! (I now use Google maps)

Whenever I see such vehicles, my senses go on high alert and I have, in the past, imagined the worst, when passing them.

However, that’s another story, so let me set the scene for you here.

We were both driving parallel to each other at a steady 80 kmph on a lovely wide road. He was on my right. Suddenly, he veered towards me, as he saw an exit to my left and obviously wanted to use the approaching flyover. Indicators on, he bulldozed his way across my path, almost sideswiping me in the bargain. I cursed under my breath and let it pass. Fifteen seconds later, he was back in front of me as he had changed his mind and about a hundred meters down the road, he finally exited to the right. If that was not dangerous driving what is.

Then came the mother of all drivers, literally and figuratively speaking.

I had probably slowed down a bit, when suddenly, out of nowhere, I spotted a lady in a small white car – probably a ‘Tida’- flashing me furiously from behind. To get my attention she even sounded her horn a few times. I was in the fast lane and the road we were on was quite empty as it was afternoon, so I pulled to my right to let her pass by. However, as she came up on my left side she slowed down, lowered her window glass, and gestured me to do so. I followed instructions, all the time wondering what the matter was. She then waved & simultaneously shouted out a question- “which way to Global village”?

If I had my way, if it were possible, and if I knew how, I would have got out and punctured her tires – yes, all four of them. Couldn’t she follow road signs?

My gentlemanly instincts soon got the better of me & I immediately remembered how I had got horribly lost when going to the global village last year and a couple of times before as well, so I smiled and asked her to follow me. She did so for about three km and I then signalled to her to branch off to the right, as I carried on.

On hindsight now , I have learnt just one way to get to the Global village and we were nowhere near that road so I probably sent her off in the wrong direction .