Headlights and Potholes.....

Some things, which happen while you are driving, are really funny.
Let me narrate a few incidents:

This happens mostly for two wheelers. While riding at night, we put
on the headlight and sometimes forget to switch it off when we get
off. Motorbikes manufactured about 15-20 years back did not have
this problem. Those bikes had two stops in the ignition key slot.
The first stop, ON, was for starting the engine and the next stop,
further right, was to switch on the headlight. So when you stopped
and switched off the engine, the key would first switch off the
headlight and then kill the engine. So there was no way your
headlight would be on if the key was in the ON slot. The present
generation bikes have a switch located on the handlebar to put on
the headlights which is independent of the ignition switch. So if
the switch is on then the headlights come on when the bike engine
comes to life.

Coming back to the present. The next morning when we start our
bikes, the headlight remains on. We can only come to know that the
headlights are on when we see the reflection of the headlight on the
vehicle in front of us or if someone tells us. Have you noticed that
when your headlight is on during the day, all persons who see it
take it upon themselves to inform you it is on? Some waving and
pointing frantically as if you are heading for a disaster if your
lights are on. Some making funny gestures with their hands which one
would take offence, if made in other circumstances. Some just
screaming "LIGHT…LIGHT".

I pass a woman on a two-wheeler on my way to work every day. I
would glance at her because I liked what I saw. She would also
glance at me (she must have liked what she saw, as is the case with
many of her species). One day, in the morning, she was approaching
me with her headlight on and I made a gesture with my hand to
indicate so. I don't know why, I could just get a fleeting glance
at her angry look at me before she zipped by. From the next day,
she would look the other way when approaching me. I have forgotten
the gesture I made, but she must have taken offence to it. Anyway,
whatever happens, happens for the good, they say. "What good, in
this incident?" you might ask. Well, one less person for my wife to
worry about.

I do not make gestures to people anymore, to indicate that their
headlights are on for fear of offending people. Now I just flash
them. Hey…hey don't go jumping into conclusions. I meant it
literally and not figuratively. I don't present them with the bare
facts, if that is what I think you are thinking. Actually, I make
them see the light i.e., the light from my headlight. ….and you
thought….? Hey, I know what flashing somebody means. C'mon, stop
thinking dirty.

If anybody flashes his headlights at you, it can mean either that he
wants you to stop and allow him to pass through a narrow passage
first or that your headlights are on.

Sometimes two wheeler riders forget to fold back the side stand of
their two-wheelers before starting off. In this case also, people
start pointing and shouting `eh….STAND..STAND' leaving the rider
slightly embarrassed for being forgetful.

This attitude shows how helpful people are, or are they? If the same
people get on a vehicle, their nature changes immediately. Imagine,
you are driving on a road and for whatever reason your engine stalls
and dies. You frantically put it in neutral and try restarting it.
The people in the vehicles behind immediately start honking their
car horns and start shouting …. " YE, @^$#*%, gaaDi chalaana nahi
aata hai kya???" "licence kissne diya tereko?" etc.

Another funny thing is when navigating potholes on the road. Every
road in India has pot holes. So many of you might have experienced
this. Some roads are so bad that when trying to avoid one, your car
will fall into a bigger one. It is a lot easier if someone does the
searching for you. So drivers tend to rely on the vehicle ahead.
On roads pockmarked with holes they will follow the vehicle ahead of
them blindly. I have tested this tendency by deliberately driving
my vehicle into potholes and have seen the vehicles through my
rearview mirror, unerringly following me into them.