The Driver's Manual

“I simply love U.S.A.!”, I bet that when I have said these words to many of my friends, somewhere deep down in their hearts or minds, they’d have wanted to lynch me for being a traitor. Not that I don’t love India, but there are times when being in U.S.A. has its advantages. Take for example, October 2006, location: Gatlinburg , Tennessee in the heart of the Smoky Mountains. I was just starting to explore U.S. and this was one of my first outings to a scenic place. On our way back to Atlanta, we were in a Dodge Caravan, navigating the seemingly treacherous curves and hairpin bends down one of the mountains. Suddenly the wail of a siren pierced the relatively calm evening air. As it grew closer, the driver of our car grew a little agitated. He had slowed down but was looking for a place to get off the road. New to this kind of reaction, I waited for him to stop the car. We all looked behind as the wail grew louder and as if to answer my question, he said, “That is an emergency vehicle going for a rescue. We should not block its path.” A few seconds later a bright red fire truck rushed past us. I was waiting for our driver to get back on the road and he waited. He had noticed what I hadn’t. There was an ambulance following it. We waited for it to pass too, before getting back on the road.
Thinking this was a unique response, I noticed that we were not the only ones off the road. Every single car ahead and behind us had done the same. Only much later when I started reading the Drivers’ Manual (required to pass the written test for issuance of learner’s license) I came across this paragraph:
“If police, fire, or ambulance service vehicles are using their emergency lights (blue or red) and sirens, safely maneuver your vehicle out of their way. You should slow your vehicle and move over to the shoulder of the road, or if that is not possible, as far to the right of the roadway or lane as you can, and stop. You should always use caution to ensure that you do not endanger other motorists, bicyclists, or pedestrians while doing so. Do not position your vehicle so that it blocks an intersection or otherwise prevents the emergency vehicle from making a necessary turn.”
That explained a lot. But to have a paragraph in a manual and seeing the same thing occur in real life is a different story. I am pretty sure the Regional Transport Office also has such a guideline in its manual (if it existed). The irony of this incident is that just a year later, I was back on the streets of Mumbai. Waiting for my company bus to arrive, I was at the designated pickup point at the crossroad junction.
Across the road, stuck behind two cars and an autorickshaw was a fire truck. Its wailing siren had really no effect on the traffic that was blocking its path. Nor did it have any effect on the traffic policeman on watch. When the signal turned green for the section where the fire truck was, there was jostling of cars and autorickshaws clamoring for the front-most spot with total disregard for the fire truck. The fire truck’s driver was making a valiant but futile attempt to get ahead. As it disappeared from view, I could just not help wondering if someone in need of urgent assistance would have lost his/her life to the indifference of the people at that crossroads.
As I continued reading the manual, I came across another paragraph therein about safety rules regarding school buses on roads.
“When a school bus is preparing to stop so that it may load or unload children, the driver of the bus will activate flashing yellow lights. When seeing these flashing yellow lights, all vehicles approaching the school bus should slow down and be prepared to stop. All drivers should pay special attention to children who may be walking along or crossing the roadway. Once the flashing lights have turned red and the stop signs have swung out from the side of the bus, it is unlawful for any vehicle to pass the stopped school bus while it is loading or unloading passengers.”

I could but not reflect upon another memory of a driver of BEST bus in Mumbai. The driver, while driving, got into a tiff with the driver of a school bus who cut him off at a signal. The driver pulled up alongside of the school bus and much to my horror and more surprisingly the nonchalant silence of my co-passengers calmly proceeded to wheel right into the side of the school bus breaking the rearview mirror on it. He just stopped short of running the school bus off the road which would have been disastrous since the road-edge was a steep fall about twenty feet into a slum dwelling. Luckily for the kids, guess their guardian angel was around, the school bus turned off an exit lane and away from our crazed driver. I got up to give the driver a piece of my mind but was dumbed down by a barrage of invectives which fortunately due to my weak vernacular vituperative vocabulary was not understood by me at that time.
People talk to me about the spirit of Mumbai, which comes alive in times of calamity, makes me wonder. Are we so tied up in running the rat race that we can only see the benefit of co-operation in adversity and ignore it the rest of the time? And why does it take a driver’s manual along with a strict enforcement system to make us remember the basic civilities of extending a helping and caring hand to our ailing and our children? Or is it too easy for us to borrow and ape the movie-plots and latest fashion/gizmo trends from our neighbors across the Atlantic while we say, “Sorry, No Thank you!” to something so essential as civic sense?