Saturday, October 13, 2012

Why’re you honking, dude?


I dislike loud sounds, except for the time I occasionally spend at a pub. That’s fine because I know what I am getting into…there would be loud music, girls and boys dancing, screaming, middle aged men and women pretending that age never caught up with them etc. I chose to be there where loud music is playing and I can walk out any time I feel like.

Unfortunately we live in a country where we are bombarded with all kinds of sounds always, everywhere. We are a people who don’t consider sound as pollution. Any city or town you go, you find, loudspeaker that blares out unpopular music (according to my taste) from a temple/church during festive seasons, or big speakers at someone’s wedding, political rallies where the person waxes eloquently on how the party is godsend and is going to change the face of this nation.

I hate all of these. I hate from my very guts, guys who honk for no apparent reason while driving. Every city in our country is infested with these senseless idiots! This is one area where the whole nation is united.

I’m sick to death of these people. I absolutely despise them. I cannot come up with a good word for the feeling I have… I curse them; sometimes abuse them, using the foulest cuss words in all the languages I know. BTW, I know cuss words in languages in which I cannot converse! And I am left seething with anger even after that.

Anyway … I am sure a lot of you will share my feelings. But there is precious little we can do to bring a stop to it. I, in my own way, will continue fighting this menace. I would suggest you do that too.

I am yet to find out why people use their horn so much. While the signal turns from red to green, the dude behind you responds with a honk, even before he probably shifts his gear or starts his engine (in case he switched it off). Hello! I am not sleeping! And I am not blind! I know that I have to move.

Well, if everyone else is moving and I don’t, honking away to glory doesn’t help, it simply means there is something wrong with my car, it won’t start. I don’t know what the guy behind me thinks…am I getting some sort of pleasure by not moving?

Every other city in the country observes a ‘no honking’ day (wonder if there is a ‘happy no honking day’ card!). Film stars, musicians, politicians, anybody who is somebody take part in campaign against the menace. But people’s love for their horn hasn’t come down one bit. They love their horn…they are ‘horn’y people!

If you ask me which city is the worst, I really can’t pick one. The competition is so stiff. I moved to Kochi recently. A city which is described a quaint and serene and green, and what not. It takes roughly an hour’s bus ride to office. So on a working day, I spend two hours suffering a high-octane cacophony in different tones, apart from the dust and the heat.

If I had my way I would fit a ring with sharp nails inside it to every driver’s b***s. And each time he presses on his horn, it would give a nice squeeze. How about that?

By 
Sooraj Singh
CreatiVentures Publishing