Old woman on the street

Recently, I witnessed an incident, that changed by opinion. In India, we don't really follow the written traffic rules. So pedestrians crossing the roads are the second most difficult obstacle to avoid after stray dogs. Having been on a vehicle for lots of years now. I tended to inherit the general attitude of the vehicle drivers towards pedestrians. One that glares into people crossing streets slowly and says - "I pay road tax, and these guys occupy roads more than me; lemme scare them off by going a little fast and screeching to a halt". I please guilty to have done that many a times. It is, after all, rather irritating to slow down every now and then and move down to lower gears, when there's a pedestrian crossing across every 100/200 mts.

In the recent past, I met this lady, probably in her early sixties. Kinda heavy, like most south Indian ladies at that age would be. Huffing and Puffing, she was enquiring with a guy who did not understand the local language of Kannada. Since I belonged to the locality and since I speak Kannada, I thought I'll help her out. I asked her what the matter was. She said she wanted to call up a relative. And that she was trying to find the nearest telephone booth.

Wanting to be the good samaritan, I offered my mobile phone. She obsolutely refused to use it. I tried for sometime to convince her and then gave up. Instead, she said "Show me the way to a public telephone booth". I told her its just across the road(for those who know Bangalore, its BTM Layout Ring road). But she wanted one on the same side of the street. I told her that its far and that the one across the road was a lot nearer. But she was adamant, she definitely wanted one on the same side of the road. Now, here was a lady, who was finding it hard to walk a long distance, did not want to use my mobile phone, was adamant on finding a telephone booth on the same side of the road, though she had to walk for a long while.

Curiosity got the better of me, and I asked her why did she want a telephone booth on the same side of the road. Apparently she did not want to cross the road... She was afraid of fast vehicles that would screech down to a halt just close to her. Yeah, the drivers would have perfect control, as in those Hollywood movies, that would have inspired such driving. But she for one, would be terribly scared of such stops. She was so scared, that she preferred walking longer (It was rather long), than to walk across the street.

This incident has changed the way I look at pedestrians crossing the road, however I do hope this change in me lasts for a longer time...