The White Smoke

The traffic sense of the motorists in Bengaluru is definitely not the best you will find in the country. It's surely not the worst, but when the proportion of two-wheelers to four-wheelers is like 8:1 and when you have Honda Citys' and Toyota Fortuners' driving next to TVS Lunas' and bullock carts' you can't expect much.
The police is, however, trying to take steps to reduce the number of petty and fatal accidents that are bound to happen all over the city and have now, finally, enforced wearing of seat belts as a compulsory rule. I have always worn seat-belts all my life, but now I was happy to know that I won't be the only one on the road doing it. 

The other day I was driving home at about 8:30pm, which is pretty late by my standards of returning home since joining Magma. As I approached the signal near ESI hospital, (about 1 km) from my home, I saw yet another petty accident that had happened at the junction. There had been a minor collision between a two-wheeler and an auto-rickshaw wala because one of them had jumped the signal. One guy was sitting on the footpath and was being attended to by some people who had gathered. The autowala continued to complain to the police in his loud kanadda and the only thing he was worried about is, 'who will pay for the dent on my tail'. The fact that his headlights, tail lights or brake were not functioning hardly mattered to him!

Those of you who have driven for a while in Bengaluru will agree that this is quite a common sight. I knew that no one was hurt and so, when the signal turned green I simply drove away.

As I approached that left turn, that I need to make to reach home, I could see some white smoke emanating from the corner of the lane. I was about 200 metres away and couldn't see much. I came closer in the slow moving traffic and noticed the smoke was prominent. Infact, I could see a large number of people had gathered there and there was a stationery rickshaw standing there too. I was hoping all was ok. I didn't want to witness two accidents on the same day, that too within minutes of each other.

My curiosity increased as I came closer and closer and when I was about 5 metres from the turn I realized what the smoke was all about. As my mind was racing through all the possibilities of what was happening at that corner, I had failed to take note of the time of the day. It was 8:30pm and the crowd had gathered there not because of any accident, but to feast on some yummy egg omelet and burgi that was being served on a cart right there.

What can I say - This is Bengaluru!!

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