Having nothing to do in the train, I decided to work on a few ideas and thoughts of mine and streamline them into a blog. I have this habit of thinking aloud when I am riding my bike. It includes a steady stream of commentary on fellow motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. It also includes commenting on roads, road signs, interesting spellings on other vehicles and a whole range of different thoughts. It helps me concentrate and I enjoy this time a lot. I never had the habit of listening to music on the bike, but this is, for me, is far better than any music. So, one day, I was going somewhere in Koramangala (in Bangalore) and I had to take a U-turn. There was a road sign clearly forbidding a U-turn at that spot. I, however, realized that there was no good reason for forbidding it there. The traffic was moderate and taking a U-turn there was not causing anyone any unnecessary inconvenience. I went ahead, took the U-turn and continued. A little further ahead, a policeman tried to stop me but I twisted, turned and escaped. However, that is a different matter. My thoughts turned to the matter at hand. Legally speaking, I am an offender now as I had just broken a law. Anybody can clearly see that I was using a defence mechanism by questioning its purpose while breaking it. This is not an isolated incident. 98% of the times, I never break any road laws. I stop at red lights, don’t take illegal turns, prefer going a little distance ahead and taking a U-turn than riding on the wrong side and use horn/dipper while overtaking. It is the remaining 2% that is of interest here. I like to convince myself that if I jump a red light, it is only after duly checking for speeding vehicles on all sides. Quite often, I ride on the pavement or off the road to escape a traffic jam. Even then, I tell myself that I am a biker and bikers are expected by traffic to stand as vanguards and lead from the front. If bikes don’t try to escape from jams, the jams can get 10 times worse than they are already are. So, I am an offender. Guilty as charged!
But, let us think about the assurances and convincing arguments I give myself. Are laws meant to be questioned? If the Government makes and implements a law, are we supposed to follow it without any doubts whatsoever? What if a law seems archaic or not in sync with the reality? Should we question and break such laws? I still think that ‘No U-turn’ sign near that junction is a nuisance for motorists. Maybe, at some point of time, it was required. Maybe, the Municipal Corporation installed that road sign and forgot to take it off. So tell me, do we have the right to question or do we blindly follow it just to be on the right side of law? Should we just think that a particular law might have been made for a purpose which is beyond our understanding that point of time? If we do so, aren’t we placing undue trust on the lawmaking authorities and assigning a quality of Godliness to them, by saying that their actions HAVE a purpose and we mere mortals are in no position to realize that ulterior motive?
But this naturally leads to more serious infringements of laws. Granted, you can question laws and break them if you think they are useless, stupid or not required. Suppose, I think that the law protecting people from killing each other is useless. I justify killing someone with reams of paper full of rhetoric. The world would end in anarchy then! Let us now add a little clause to the right to question and break moronic laws. This clause would attempt to prevent the chaos and anarchy I just talked about. This clause says, you can question and break laws if another human being is not inconvenienced or harmed by it! Where does that land us? Back at square one. Now, kindly define inconvenience and harm! Kindly also tell me, how qualified are humans to understand the far reaching consequences of relatively harmless actions that they indulge in everyday? You break a law that you deem to be stupid and you make sure that nobody is inconvenienced or harmed by it immediately. But what if circumstances change in the fraction of a second? I am jumping that red light after carefully making sure that there is nobody coming directly in front of my path. At that point of time, my tire slips on a little stone that has no business being there in the middle of the road. It is there because a kid was kicking it on the way home from school and it landed here. I slip on it and fall. A car, which I could have easily avoided if I hadn’t slipped, rushes towards me at breakneck speed and.......
Oh dammit! I think too much. It is a result of ennui, my dear friends. Boredom. I am going to have a nap. So long, folks! Parting advice: look carefully before you jump a red light or take an illegal U-turn. These cops deliberately hide behind trees and jump out like a tiger pouncing on its prey!
