I want to exchange my car for a motorcycle
THE traffic in Dhaka has become awful nowadays. I am tired of going out in my car. It takes hours to go from one place to another in the megacity! I can never keep an appointment. The distance hardly matters. It is the heavy traffic that keeps us waiting on the road. As ordinary and law abiding citizens, we are obliged to follow the traffic rules and are punished for any violations. The VIPs are, of course, exceptions. The police are not supposed to take any action against them even if they violate traffic rules. On the contrary, actions are taken against the police for their audacity if any VIP's car is stopped for any offence. Since I am not a VIP and not licensed to violate rules, I have decided to exchange my car for a motorcycle. I have, of course, very good reasons to do so.
First of all, I don't have to follow any traffic rules if I ride a motorcycle. All motorcyclists are treated like VIPs on the road. With my motorcycle, I can go against the traffic, against the red signal, in between two cars running side by side and across two cars when one closely follows the other one. I can overtake a turning vehicle from either side. I can take a turn to any direction at any crossing against any traffic light, often overtaking other vehicles on either side! I hope, with a little bit of practice, I would be able to go over the traffic one day like the Bollywood film stars! Whatever I do, the police will never dare to stop me.
If the traffic gets too bad, I won't have to wait. I can always leave the road and drive over the footpath. There are no vehicles on footpaths except motorcycles. The pedestrians are very polite. They always make room for us to pass by. They have no courage to protest. Occasionally, we outnumber them on the footpaths. Finding no other alternatives, they even leave the footpaths and walk on the roads! Look, how nice they are! Street vendors occasionally create problems for us. I wonder why the government is so lenient to them and does not take stern action to evict them permanently from the footpaths! What right have they got to obstruct our movement on the footpaths?
Now, you see how I shall become the king on the road with my motorcycle! Is there anyone interested in exchanging his motorcycle for my car?
The writer is a former chief engineer of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission.
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