Thursday, June 18, 2009

#21 Road mannerism, an obsolete concept ??

I was driving back home from the university in the evening, when a speeding car suddenly zipped past mine. Before I could gather back my senses, it had already hit a scooty which immediately fell down…and the guy simple drove away without even bothering to slow down to see what he had done. Can u imagine ?? Unable to follow suit, I simply stopped my car at a corner, and went to the girl to offer any help. Luckily she wasn’t hurt except for a few scratches, and got back onto her vehicle soon. While I was returning to my car, I couldnt help observe people around giving me dirty looks. I couldn’t comprehend what in the world could I have done to deserve such a reaction, so I just shrugged and kept walking.
I could understand only when a man closeby shouted….Chhoti si bachhi ho, gaadi theek se chalani nahin aati, toh kyun chalane ki koshish karti ho?? accident kara diya na ( U little girl , if u don’t know how to drive properly, why do u ? See, you caused an accident! )…. I was too shocked to be able to utter anything, so expressed my feelings with an outrageous stare at him.
~ aise kya dekh rahi ho, konsi class main padti ho, kitni umar ki ho? (What are you staring at? Which grade do u study and how old are you?
~engineering, 3rd yr... agle hafte bees saal ki ho jaungi. ( Next week,I’m turning 20)
~achha !! nayi nayi gaadi seekh rahi ho? (Ohh really, still learning driving?)
~5 saal se chala rahi hoon. (Been driving since 5 years)
The guy was quiet, perhaps to cover up for his embarrassement, he impudently turned around to his wife and remarked, ladkiyon ke haath main gaadi deni hi nahin chahiye (Girls should never be given a car to themselves)
I was stunned and completely at loss of words.

And I still am. Can’t figure out what to brood over more. Is it now in our DNA to assume that the one helping a fallen person back on his vehicle is actually the one who threw him off?? Or is the society so conditioned to be patriarchal, that it can’t digest the fact that a female can drive pretty normally, without causing an accident.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

well,, timing, we call it timing... thats all it matters....he dint see that car hit the girl and he saw u..

get it behind u, if u know u are right, dont care abt any bullshit

Urvi said...

wow..that is really shocking! we poor girls are always so damn discriminated when it comes to driving! I'm learning right now...and my driving teacher always jokes that I learnt surprisingly fast for a girl...and I was like what the hell does that mean?

G said...

u bet, i still remember, i had learned driving only by watching my dad drive. So he put me in a driving school only so that i get a car to try on,din't want to risk our new car then :D
and that guy wouldn't believe me when i told him i already knew the stuff he was teaching me, and i jus needed to start on the goddam wheels !! and he was like, guys hurrying into it is still beliavable, but not for a girl ...

i jus refused to sit in the car from the next day.

zuko said...

You are an Eddie :)

vandy said...

cn just laugh at this

cuz this is wat we r still facing being girls!!!!!!

Rahil said...

Welcome to India, i believe this is what happens all the time,..

And being a girl has nothin to do wid it, we boyz face such situations all of the times..!!

But, i am happy the comming generation has a different vision of seing these things !

G said...

@ pathik,
thankyou :)
if its from you, it means something to me :) :)

G said...

@ rahil....do you mean that guys face gender discrimination too?? well, i have yet to see someone saying " ladkon ke haath main gaadi deni hi nahin chahiye " !!!

Rahil said...

@G
I didnt meant it that way, i absolutely agree with what u just said.

I Meant...lets take an eg "If a girl meets an accident and suppose the other driver is of opposite gender"
We generally hear "aaj kal ke ladke uff.." despite the fact that it was girl's mistake.

Dont take it as an offence of your feelings, its just we boys often get tagged as "bigde hue bache.."!!

Sushil Solanki said...

you did a great work....
congrats....its you good deeds which make you a nice individual...and you deserve praise....when you are doing a good thing and you know that you are correct....dont bother about nything....