Act of Indecency

Do you own a car? Do you drive to work and back? If you are a Thimphu resident, you definitely must be owning one or you must be thinking of owning one. Cars have become a necessity of city life and without it our daily chores in and out of homes would mean unimaginable trouble. If I am wrong, just look at the roads where you reside in the city. Just last year there were a few parked, this year, one finds it difficult to get a decent parking space. The numbers have only doubled in a year’s time. As we develop economically the number of cars will only double in times to come and that I am sure.  

Good, well said and done! Owning a car is the Bhutanese version of the American Dream I suppose and who doesn’t want their life to be comfortable and easy, even I do. 

Schooling has begun for this year and will go on until 18^th December. An hour before the office rush hour, it’s the school rush hour. Thousands of teachers, students and parents wanting to get to their school is making the traffic choke. Fine, this is the price we must pay for owning a car. Of course there are other advantages of owning a car. Who doesn’t know about this? In fact everyone does. But I have some uneasiness mentioning this here on my blog.

Everyone these days needs a car. Depending on the income we choose or may choose the cars we want it for ourselves. The point is, some of the people drive posh expensive cars only to show disrespect and indiscipline on roads. I am not against how you bought or how wealthy you are. Its none of my business either. Just because you drive a BMW, it doesn’t mean you don’t make way for the incoming Maruti 800 car. The road doesn’t belong to you.

And while driving at nights, your big cars head light causes blindness to other smaller cars. Your car is huge, tires are huge and the ground clearance is also huge, that doesn’t mean you have touched the sky and the ones with smaller cars are going anywhere near hell. You drive 4x4  on our roads, it’s for off road-ing. Excuse me, cars in the western world have low ground clearance. I know you will opine Bhutanese roads to be no better than for off road-ing. A small car can reach where you reach.

When you drive a Land Cruiser for instance, you aren’t the king of the road, please make sure others using smaller cars also get a decent space to cross over or pass by. And some doesn’t even know how to signal to other cars using one’s own parking lights. What a disgrace? What’s the use of driving, when you don’t even know the basic traffic rules? A long queue on the expressway is seen everyday just because a big expensive car has refused to give in to the space for a smaller car. What good is your big car when you drive them only to show attitude and indiscipline on roads? Likewise what good is your degree and masters when you don’t have the decency to be humble? And for the cab drivers…it would be another update. Indecency is rampant on roads these days.

Drive responsibly folks, the roads doesn’t belong to you!