[speedsatya]

Thought will share with you whatever I went through yesterday .

Date :14 December 2011
Time : 5pm IST
Location: The Elevated Toll road from Electronic City
The other vehicle : Alto,KA01MA5586

For those who dont know ,the speed limit on this toll road is 80 kph .But ,its very rare that you see people follow this limit.Its only when vehicles approach the point where the Bangalore Traffic Police ( BTP) stands once in a while ,that people slow down to 80 .And ,once you see from the distance that there is no cop standing ,downshift and floor the A pedal .

I left office at 5 pm and was driving at 70 kph on the left lane .There was another vehicle that was overtaking me on the right when I see this Alto being driven like mad cutting in and out of traffic .This idiot tries to squeeze in between my car and the other vehicle that is overtaking me .All this on a 2 lane road ! I swerve to the left to avoid contact and just gesture at him for driving so rash .I put my hand out to say this .All of a sudden ,this moron brakes right in front of me ,forcing me to stop .Vehicles behind us somehow avoid a pile up .

2 guys get down from the car and seeing my MH number ,start speaking in Kannada .I do understand Kannada ,but I cant speak .So i reply in English .
They tell me that I am from MH and should go back to where i come from .It seems in KA they dont follow rules .I only tell him that he should be driving more carefully and the speed limit is 80 which he was clearly exceeding .

Both these people jump on me and one guy starts punching .I somehow block them and give it back with a kick and a slap .Realising that they cannot do much ,they start calling the other cab drivers and tell them that this guy from MH is teaching us rules in KA !!

He also tells me that rules are for your baap ! The next time you hear someone honking in a KA car either crash your car off the bridge or make way !

And , i am left with a fractured little finger .All for following traffic rules !

Another thing I want to point out are the shameless car drivers .All of them were watching this enfold in front of them ,but no one came to stop this .Hadnt i given back ,dunno what extent would this have gone on to !

[shivshanker]

My sympathies with u Seepdsatya,

I have been through similar experiences every time I bring in my MH registered Baleno into BLR, though I am a native of BLR, my Kannada is all messed up today due to Hubli/Dharward and Mangalore dialect mixing. I have also got into trouble with the Rickshaw guys as I observed they intentionally scrape your bumper and then ask for money to repair their damage. The cops side with local rickshaw drivers, for their cut.

I am sure we have highly educated and cultured people in BLR, but the ratio of bad apples and their hatred towards non Karnataka guys is a bit on the higher side.

I want to share my worst experience with u in BLR,

Some time in Sep-Dec 1989, fresh out of Engineering college, I am busy walking the streets of Ind Sira Nagar, dropping my resume to all theoftware houses, which were operating out of Garages, out of sheer exhaustion, I decided to catch a bus go to Ulsoor. I find a vacant seat and plonk myself next to a young lady. To my surprise, she gets up from the seat admonishing me and asking me : If I had no mother and sisters at home" just b'cos I sat next to her.

She was well dressed and looked educated, today after 21 years, I see no difference between that girl and the rowdies you encountered.

[rohanjf]

Checked here: BTIS - Bangalore Transport Information System
Found this:
Owner Name : PRAKASH.B.P.
Engine No : F8DN4066431
Chasis No : MA3EYD81SOO476903
Make : MARUTI ALTO
Company : MARUTI UDYOG LTD
Engine Capacity : 796 cc


Not too much of help. I was hoping to find the address too.

Were you not able to lock your car from inside and close all the windows?

[evilshantanu]

This is really unfortunate. I know what Alto you are talking about, he is a regular on the Elevated tollway. I have seen him drive crazily a number of times on that road.

Similar incidents have happened with me in other parts of the city (not involving the mentioned Alto). Where the people are very rash, and when you ask them at the next red-light that what were they upto, everything boils down to speaking in Kannada. I can understand Kannada but cant speak it, but I guess that is immaterial, as long as one is not dis-respecting the language.... I dont know where is road rage is going to take Bangalore.

The roads these days in the city are worst in the country and the road tax the highest in the country. You literally have to take a call on which is a smaller pothole, and drive on ORR.

The sad part about this entire incident is, you cant even report it to Police, I know that they wont give an ear to it. Guess these guys should start giving Visa and work permit to the guys who wants to come to Bangalore and work here.

I am here since the last 8-9 years, and I have seen the situation going from bad to worse in the last 2-3 years. Earlier nobody cared about all these things.....

[ku69rd]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

Thought will share with you whatever I went through yesterday .

My Apologies for the poor behavior you experienced just because you were with a MH Regn Number. Did you try to complain to the cops and see their part of story?
To be honest this sort of behavior does exist in all states and not just with Karnataka. Have experienced this many a times whenever am out of state.

[paragsachania]

This is really sad Satya. You had to face this for having a MH registered number but there are instances where people have judged me wrong by looking at my ID card (and the name on it) and tried the same tactics only to realize later that I know Kannada better than them.

I have faced numerous instances on the so called Elevated stretch where people wrongly hold up the fast lane at super slow speeds or even try to squeeze in between when there is no place.

Though the right lane is marked for cars, I always make sure that I occupy the leftmost lane and maintain 80kmph and even if I have to overtake a few 2 wheelers, I do that and again get back to the left lane. After all, I am not driving a truck that I have to bother too much on the energy involved in moving the car to a different lane and getting back again.

The road rage these days has gone to such a saddened state that even if you just look at the other driver you are inviting a bigger trouble. I hope your finger(s) recover fast.

[evilshantanu]

Originally Posted by paragsachania

The road rage these days has gone to such a saddened state that even if you just look at the other driver you are inviting a bigger trouble. I hope your finger(s) recover fast.

Totally agree with you on this. Just to calm things down, I have started smiling at drivers now, when the commit a mistake, rather than looking at them. To my horror, that also made one of the drivers angry and he started banging my windows!

[praful]

That is pretty sad state of affairs and quite frankly quite pissing off!!

I too have been driving a MH registered car in BLR for almost 2 years now. I don't think it would be long before something similar happens to me as well.

Infact yesterday, this cab guy comes and hits my 'TN' registered bike from the back as he din't brake soon enough in crawling traffic. He behaved as if nothing happened, had I stopped to give this guy a piece of my mind a similar thing would have erupted!

[speedsatya]

Originally Posted by rohanjf

Checked here: BTIS - Bangalore Transport Information System
Found this:
Owner Name : PRAKASH.B.P.
Engine No : F8DN4066431
Chasis No : MA3EYD81SOO476903
Make : MARUTI ALTO
Company : MARUTI UDYOG LTD
Engine Capacity : 796 cc


Not too much of help. I was hoping to find the address too.

Were you not able to lock your car from inside and close all the windows?

This car is serviced at Surakshaa and I have his address .But what do I gain out of this ? I am on leave and at home today ,because of my fractured finger .I have decided that I will try and ignore idiots like these. I will try and use my office transport henceforth ,as I also know that no matter how much I try ,this can happen again !

I did think about not stepping out ,but then I have seen people break windshields ! I thought I can try talking sense and hence stepped out . There was one more aged guy with him and the way he was jumping and abusing ,all i could do is pity them .

About cops,as the road was blocked ,BETL officials came there and spoke to me as if I was the one who caused this ! I realised going to cops would be unnecessary nuisance and hence ,decided to not file a case .

[mayankjha1806]

This is really sad and surprising at the same time. Any reason you did not go and file an FIR against the Alto. Nothing like this has ever happened to me personally but i am sure there needs to be some way out.

This cannot keep going like this on and on. Has some one else gone through something similar and done something about it?

[hrman]

Ohh. Thats shocking Speedsatya. And it was brave of you to counter them and hit back. I hope you recover fast. And about Xenophobic behaviour, well what can I say? I have seen similar behaviour to a lesser extent in Chennai and Mumbai. Although since I know Marathi and Tamil, its not so much of a problem there, but in Bangalore it becomes an ego issue if you are not able to converse in Kannada. Especially with the rowdy elements who use this as an advantage and others who egg them on. Sigh.

[bblost]

Originally Posted by speedsatya

This car is serviced at Surakshaa and I have his address .

You can send him either a Horse's head like "The Godfather" or an anonymous bouquet of flowers with a get well message courtesy his MH friend.

Either of these will scare the hell out of him. Hopefully make him think a couple of times before he messes with anyone.

[SS-Traveller]

Though I sympathise with you and the fact that you have been injured, you do mention that...

Originally Posted by speedsatya

...I swerve to the left to avoid contact and just gesture at him for driving so rash .I put my hand out to say this .All of a sudden ,this moron brakes right in front of me...

...you had been responsible for provoking the other driver as you have described above (One doesn't need much imagination to realize what you might have been saying with your hand ).

Now that road rage is here to stay, it would be much much wiser if you as a responsible citizen desist from provoking others who are driving rashly and irresponsibly - controlling them is a job that the Traffic Police need to do, not you and me. Today it's a broken little finger, tomorrow it could be a bullet in the head.

If you feel you must contribute to controlling others' rash driving, please install an in-car video recorder (something like this: Mini HD DVR with Viewscreen for Car Sports with HDMI | eBay), and send the relevant videos to your local traffic police - BTP is pretty active on FB, I hear, as are the Delhi Traffic Police.

[SDP]

Sad incidence. We are seeing more & more people with short fuses these days. Best strategy is to not point out to them their mistakes not teach them what they should do. Not worth spending that effort on these idiots. Another thing is, NEVER get out of your vehicle or lower the windows fully in case of any argument.

Take care of your hand. Hope you recover soon.

[A350XWB]

Satya, sorry to hear about the incident. Morons are all over the place and it's better not to have a duel with these fellows. Funny thing is that all these idiots think that they own the road and whatever they do is right. It is not the language or the place from which you come; they want to cover up their actions using regionalism, language etc.

Originally Posted by evilshantanu

I am here since the last 8-9 years, and I have seen the situation going from bad to worse in the last 2-3 years. Earlier nobody cared about all these things.....

I echo your sentiments. I've been in Bangalore for over 9 years now and my cars are KA registered ones. Still, on some occasions, people have tried to pick up a verbal fight with me for not giving them way even when there is no place to move or not overtaking dangerously so that they could follow through. In these situations, all the Kannada that I've acquired through these years come out and they just speed off. I think it's because they feel that nobody will come for justifying their actions in such cases.

And I totally agree with SS-Traveller. It's not worth trying to educate people or provoking them, if you are not ready to go down to their level.