Anne Frank once said, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Clearly, Anne Frank never tried driving in Gurgaon. Drives in Gurgaon are like playing deathmatch on Call of Duty; every man for himself, seeking to cause as much carnage as possible. Most of my overseas friends believe that there exists a concept known as ‘road rules’. The only rule I can think of here is that every driver must give zero fucks about anything other than getting to their destination on time, even if they make it there in a casket.
There are two guarantees when driving in India. One is that you will have at least one near-death experience every time, and the other is traffic. As a Gurgaon/Delhi boy myself, traffic is something I’ve been intimately familiar with since the day of my birth. Traffic was the reason I heard my dad swear for the first time. And the second. And so on. If you’re not driving, though, being stuck in traffic can be the opportunity to be productive. I can personally attest to completing at least 3 assignments while stuck in traffic. From this perspective, for an Ashoka student, clear roads can actually be a bad thing. Based on where you are in India, I can tell you how productive you’re capable of being during a five-kilometre drive:
Chandigarh: If you’re in Chandigarh, drives are not your best bet for finishing your overdue assignments. You’ll have about enough time to write a Kalinga-tier Twitter shitpost before you reach.
Delhi: If you’re in Delhi, traffic will bolster your productivity, allowing you to write 1 Rudy Great Books paper.
Bangalore: Bangalore is a world without time. On the road, the passage of time comes to a standstill. You’re free to do as you wish here. You can do your ASP + YIF, find a wife, raise a family. You can become a scholar, enriching your mind with texts from centuries past, or a poet, crafting verbal tapestries that can change lives. You can watch every show ever released since the dawn of man. You can become a master at anything you please. It doesn’t matter, because you are now one with the Bangalore traffic, and you will never see the rest of the world again.
Fortunately, all of these road problems are but a distant memory for me, because I’ve been waiting for the shuttle for 6 hours.
Comentarios