Motorists with muscle power

MOTORISTS WITH MUSCLE POWER
Smaller vehicles and women drivers on the road are at the receiving end of a show of strength
The Times of India

IT’S a real show of strength, the battle arenas are the roads of Bangalore and the contestants are the city’s motorists. A car pitted against a lorry, a smaller car against a hi-powered four-wheel and a woman behind the wheel struggling against a male driver.

GENDER RULES...
The roads of Bangalore are tougher for women motorists. Male drivers use different intimidation tactics to either push them out of their lane or shout them down during a scuffle. Anitha Prakash (name changed) had a skirmish with the driver of an MUV (multi-utility vehicle) on 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar a few days ago. “I was returning from dinner with a friend and her two small children around 10.15 pm. I was trying to overtake an MUV parked on the middle of the road when somebody suddenly opened the door and it hit my car. The man got out of the car and started apologising. I also got out to check how bad my damage was. Suddenly, the car driver, who was intoxicated, stepped out and started hurling abuses at me,” she says. The children got scared and started wailing and the men in the other vehicle, some 10 of them, started intimidating Anitha and her friend. “We were soft targets; they wanted to extract some money from us. They said I was in the wrong and wanted me to pay up. But I stood my ground and called my husband over. One fellow sat on my car bonnet, one guy almost pushed me back into the car and then they surrounded us. It was also shocking that not one passing vehicle stopped to help,” she says. The fight got uglier when her husband and friend reached the spot and they all landed up at the police station. She filed a case, but it was later withdrawn when the men begged and pleaded with her to do so.

CLASS CONSCIOUS...
Shyam Nair, who works at a BPO, left his house on ITPL road to go to his office in Koramangala when a drunk lorry driver hit his vehicle. “It happened a couple of months ago. I was on the right lane on the Ring Road when a lorry tried to overtake from the wrong side and hit my car. He was so drunk that while overtaking he had lost control. But when I got out of the car he put the blame on me. Surprisingly, a crowd of local people gathered and they also supported him. I was furious but I knew it was becoming a social class issue. Then the police landed up and they advised me to patch up. By then, I had had enough and wanted to just settle the matter,” he says.

SIZE MATTERS...
Jagadeesh S is big built and so is his car. He says size works on the road. “I bought an SUV a year ago, and since then I have realised that nobody messes with me. Autos, twowheelers and cars, till the mid-segment, stay away. If at all they give trouble, I go a little aggro (read, pump the accelerator) and that’s sufficient. The only vehicles with whom I lose out are call centre cabs and tempos. I also don’t try anything with BMTC buses,” he says.