[mempheS.D]

Sorry about what you had to put up with. It's not just you but a lot of us who've experienced or yet to experience something like that in India's metro city aka 'rowdy-infested' cities.

Bangalore is no different. And from friends in other cities like Noida, Chennai, etc. I understand that this ruffian behaviour is in our blood inspired by a lot of rogue actions, words and dialogues from our movies. Some learn to tell the difference between civilized and and uncivilized, while some DON'T.

What's important for you to learn is:
1. Keep your cool. Don't retaliate with abusive words for your never know what he's going to pull out next.
2. If in a car, roll up your windows? Don't even bother negotiating or discussing with these 'scums of the land'. You are only wasting your time.
3. Ignore as best asa posibble. Don't even bother to pass a message through eye-contact. REMEMBER!! You are one the road to get from poinat A to point B. The destination is important. Enjoy the journey. While everything else is simply a worthless obstacle.

These are steps I practice. Through advice and experience, I've learned to tame myself but then there are some times when nothing can stop you, and later the guilt gets on you.

You are all good to be back on the road, buddy. Buckle up. Turn up the music volume. Enjoy the ride.

[8090guy]

Me too had a similar but much scaled down version of this experience. Was stopped by 2 bikers in broad day light on a highway. I just reversed and drove past them. They tried to chase me, but on a highway, car is faster. I was just reacting not thinking those 2 -3 minutes.

There no one sequence of steps to follow when one finds himself in these kind of situations. One is left to his own luck. ( What if ciddharth had left a window open by mistake?). I believe, one must not get out of the car though.

But the other side of the story is that, no police complaint or anything of that sort is required. These kind of morons dig their own grave.
Cidharth, just thank God

[aviorp]

Sorry to heart about the incident. It hurts to see our loved possessions being tortured for no fault of ours. This is what I keep always in my Scorp and carried it both times to Leh. Fortunately (or unfortunately ) I have not got the chance to use this but hopefully, this might be of some help in situations like these.



Link to purchase : http://www.oliveplanet.in/

(I'm not involved directly nor indirectly with oliveplanet)

[SS-Traveller]

It is probably a very bad idea to threaten / aggrieve such biker gangs with pepper sprays. If you can, then drive away. If you can't, then ignore them. Do not make eye contact, do not roll down windows, do not apologize, do not unlock/get out of the car. Pretend to make a phone call (even dial 100 if you must), pretend you had a heart attack and slump over the steering, pretend to go to sleep after tilting the seat right back, pretend you lost your marbles under the seat and are searching for them - but do nothing to aggravate the situation.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by ciddharth

however being inexperienced I feel I am not at all ready to face rowdy and brash incidents with such motorists on the road and did not know exactly what to do and how to go about it.

Being unusually polite and nice has saved me and my car/bike from a beating in the 2 times I've been in such situations. It really calms angry people down when you do the exact opposite of what they're doing/being.

Don't forget to dial 100 after the bullies have left. They need to be stopped.

[Accius]

Buddy, its shocking what you have experienced. Its was good and a very practical decision on your part to not get out of the car and remain on the spot instead of speeding and running over them(panic can result in many wrong decisions and get you in trouble). Tazmaan's recommendation of dialling 100 could help in such cases. Hope you recover from the trauma soon.

[an_and]

How about purchasing some of the stuff in the site below. Is it allowed in India? and does someone know where can we get these

http://www.smartstun.com/

My wife was mentioning that one of her friends got her husband one for self defense, from abroad, because he travels quite late in the night.

[StrangeWizard]

Bro trust me I have seen enough of these stupid bikers when I started driving around a year back.
They honk, they abuse, they cut you off.
Some days back a biker was crossing in front of my car even though my signal was green and he banged my number plate. I shouted saying wth do you come in between when your signal is red? He abuses and goes a bit further where he has to stop due to oncoming traffic.
Then I just look at him and the stupid pillion says come here if you have the guts.
Now even I got angry so I said you come here of you have the guts. The pillion gets off, wears his sunglasses and comes towards my car in full singham style! Then he again abuses and I just rev the car and zoom off.

One thing I've learnt : Never ever make any eye contact with such guys.

They only tend to scare young guys who are alone in the car. There is no way this guy would have come to my car if there were 3-4 of us sitting.

The biker "gangs" who hang around marine drive or worli seaface and others who race on the WEH after 11pm are a big menace. These bikers are spread all over the city. Infact I hate them more than rickshaw drivers.

PS- Never ever get out of the car or roll down the windows completely. Just open about less than an inch.

[alpha1]

Why would you not take the police help in such scenario?
Mumbai is now well known for its "prompt" action especially after the recent FB incident.

Otherwise also, why wouldn't the police help?
Of course its needless to add that police is never seen around when/where you really require them ...

[apachelongbow]

Moderator Warning : You have been warned before. Do NOT post inappropriate messages on Team-BHP. We do NOT support or encourage violence.

Team-BHP will NOT permit any posts that talk of running bikers off the road. We advise you to post in a respectful manner toward other road users.

[Anandg]

The reason why these loosers try to bully is one that they are envy of what you have (a car) and second they get a sadistic pleasure that they are top of world when they bring down a car guy's ego. They anyways have nothing better to do but to show how smart they are in front of their friends and every time they win and hurt people they get bolder. Hence not only call 100 but try to call your friends asap. Also remember monkeys hate eye contact and treat this as a challenge for an open fight and this breed of hooligans is worse than mad monkeys.

[eq24]

I second the Taser or the pepper spray idea. be careful of the pepper spray because if it is a wind draft coming from the opposite direction then you might get the effect of the spray as well. Of course this is not to say calmly and rationally deal with these animals first and only if they still refuse to reason go ahead teach them a lesson or so.

The whole point of just stay calm and let them break your windows and such is according to me an encouragement to these fools. The fact that they have never been caught or heard of other such people avoiding jail time is a morale booster for these people to go on unabated. But if they start hearing that somewhere such an incident had taken place that one of these guys was pepper sprayed so bad that he lost his eye sight or tasered so bad that he was vomiting for hours at an end, they will at least think of the repercussions which can take place for such actions.

[Omtoatom]

A very disturbing and unnerving incident Siddharth. Sorry you had to bear the brunt of these hooligans. Like Akshay said, this is happening on an alarming regularity in Mumbai. These guys make a nuisance of themselves at night, almost always with an utter disregard toward road safety and their own basic safety gear.

Unfortunately Versova is where I stay and J. P. Road also happens to be my daily commute path. And I've experienced this - albeit in a much milder form. Possibly the same bunch of morons who knows. Rehaan made some superb points in the beginning there. Just continue on your path without making any changes to your course or speed. And hope goodness prevails.

[sumathindra]

I was almost involved in a similar incident a couple of years back when I was not a bhpian.

When the crazed bikers came near my car to stop me for no fault of mine (my fault was I did not slow, speedup or change lanes as another bhpian mentioned) which irked them. The moment one of the goons lifted his fists to bang the car, I jammed the breaks and just got down and yelled at the top of my voice "do that and you had it" and the guys just backed off. Yes there was a heated argument however since he knew there was nothing he could pin on me he just left swearing. My observations on this are

1. Do not show that you are scared. Honestly age also matters here
2. Try as mush as possible to remain calm and start thinking of alternatives.
3. Look for some cops around or group of people who can assist.

Such bikers are a big problem on our roads and must be brought to book!

[iamahunter]

2 days ago I saw police catching these kind of bikers here at 5 Gardens, Matunga.
Few tried to escape and barely avoided hurting people walking around or other normal bikers.
This has happened before as well. But its difficult to stop these bikers.

Try and avoid talking to them, even a sorry will lead to a heated argument or even physical fight.

Keep cool, do not get out of your vehicle, and try to note the bike numbers.

If they try to damage your car, flee to the nearest police station. Sure they wont follow you there.