One night after our finishing our dinner at a ‘kwality’ dining establishment in Kazhakuttam, near Thiruvananthapuram’s Technopark, my colleague and I were waiting in his car for a break in traffic. In the twenty seconds we were stationary, I saw:
- a motorcycle in the centre of the road whip across in front of a speeding bus;
- an Ambassador taxi, with its wheels half on the road and half on the dirt beside it, speed at 60 km/h alongside the slighty slower-moving traffic;
- and an autorickshaw drive the wrong way down the highway until it could pull across to the correct lane.
I remarked to my colleague that people sure are in a hurry in India. “Mmm,” he acknowledged thoughtfully as he inched the car backwards into the chaos. “We’re so impatient,” he said, forcing a space in traffic by jutting the rear of the car out into the road so other motorists had to veer around us. He turned to me and laughed. “Even I am like that! And I don’t know why.” The way somewhat cleared, we sped off on the way back to work.
Jdanspsa Wyksui 
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Hee hee! Sometimes when I’m on the roads I feel like I’m living a video game!
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Very interesting take on this very irritating phenomenon. Atleast makes me feel less ashamed when I see the blatant jumping of queues that we resort to in almost every sphere of life. Thanks for taking such a generous view of such an abominable trait. I hope I shall also be able to see things in the same fashion or atleast fall back on this explanation when such behaviour raises my heckles.
Hi Shalini, thanks for visiting. I suppose that through increased exposure, almost anything can be understood in a different (and perhaps more generous/forgiving) way. Don’t get me wrong, I still push and shove with the best of them sometimes!