Tag Archives: driving

The Moron Lane

“Which lane is he driving in,” I asked, extremely frustrated.

“The Moron lane,” she said, quickly looking up from her phone, and as quickly going back to whatever she was doing.

I’ve said it many times before, but since my blog isn’t as popular, people hardly ever get to know what I say. Those white dashed or solid lines in between two lanes of a road aren’t a guideline for you to drive, they are there to divide two lanes – and you have to choose one of those lanes. The idea is to have those painted stripes either on your left or your right. And since, we drive on the right here, you are better off in the leftmost lane, till you get this right. (By the way, for what it is worth, dashed lines mean that you are allowed to overtake (from the right, i.e.) and solid lines means that you should wait till you see a dashed line, before overtaking)

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When I thought hard about the Moron lane, I also imagined, we’d need Moron tunnels. We have folks using hazard lights in well-lit tunnels and then changing lanes in the tunnel. I am sure, they actually switch the turn indicator. You see, the left/right indicators do not function as desired when you have hazard lights on. But then, there is no logic of using hazard lights in a tunnel – switching on the car lights, lights up the tail lamps. That’s enough information for me, driving behind you, to know that you are in the tunnel. If you have to use hazard lights – please do not change lanes in a tunnel at speeds greater 80kmph.

Many rants have been suppressed; people driving diagonally across the three lanes as they speak on the mobile phone, stopping on the blind side of a curve to relieve themselves in a temporary waterfall, and on the city streets, puking red goo; cars in India should come factory-fitted with spittoons, rather than ashtrays.

But there is one sight I love on the expressway: the Bright Yellow Tata Nano doing 45kmph in the first lane.

Priceless.

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This blog started off as a travel blog. It was meant to be about real travels — i.e. in meatspace. It still is a travel blog, in a way, except that it now travels in thoughtspace.

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It was a weekend of opening up your mind to all that you had forgotten. A reminder of life around you and beyond the limits that were created without you ever realising it. And while you may have experienced something similar before, you need to do it often — to remind yourself, so that the limits of your world are constantly expanding.

And you are aware of the expanse of the world that you really live in.

Always good to go home, even if, for just 24 hours. Even if you drive 783 kms to get there and back, all in a span of 36 hours.

Always good.

Coincidence’s Cousin

I drove to Pune today. It was a hurried day trip; driving back in the evening, I am a couple of kilometres away from my home. A car is crawling on the Western Express Highway beside mine. It has the same last four digits on its license plate as mine. It is registered in Pune, where I just came from. My car goes ahead a few metres, then his overtakes me for a few. We do this a couple of times over the next kilometre.

After a while, the driver of that car has rolled down the window and asks me for directions to a location that is nearly the place where I stay.

Does coincidence have another name?