Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Sidewalks 101 - Part II

I saw a man ready to strangle another this morning. I had just dropped off Sofia at her school when I heard the escalating shouts. I couldn't understand what the older man was saying to the motorcyclist, who had apparently been caught by surprise, but I just knew what he was saying. "What do you think you're doing you moron!!! You almost ran me over!! Drive on the road like everyone else instead of the sidewalk!!! You could've gotten me killed!!!"

It's the same thing I secretly think to myself every time a motorcyclist jumps the curb. And although I was kind of happy to know that it wasn't just me, my foreign and American self, thinking these things... I couldn't help but feel a teeny bit sorry for the guy who was probably having a million different Hindi insults hurled at him. It was oddly silent around this guy shouting amidst the overly crowded morning traffic because everyone was really curious to know what all the drama was about. And the motorcyclist couldn't say much... he didn't yell back... he couldn't because he knew he had gotten caught and also because the guy yelling at him was obviously much older than him, and here in India, there is a deep reverence and respect for their elders. When the traffic started moving again, that motorcyclist, whom the elder man most likely nicknamed "moron", was finally free to escape the frantic shouts.

No comments: