Honk! Honk! Honk!
Everybody suddenly started to honk for don’t know what
reason.
It must have been 10:00 at night, foggy and very cold.
It took me a few seconds to know the reason.
‘Where was I?’
On a Traffic signal; a junction, in fact.
On Traffic signal, waiting for signal to go green. Signal
only showed ‘green’ for forward going vehicles. There was no indicator for
right turn, which by default meant ‘Red signal’ for vehicles wanting to take
right. I had stopped waiting for signal to go green so I could take right turn.
In short, only one arrow in green colour appeared on the
signal board. That’s how the signal board was programmed at that junction. At
times it gets confusing there.
Honk! Honk! Honk! ……… some more honks… It became damn noisy for 1-2 minutes.
Almost every vehicle seems to be honking badly.
I looked around, trying to figure out what really happened.
I usually turn the engine off when signal is red (to save
fuel). I was ahead of whole traffic during red light, coincidently, right
before zebra crossing.
Looks like vehicles behind me had also turned off engine
that day.
Honking continued….
“oye, what’s your problem…? Drive off”, someone shouted (not
on me).
Suddenly, I saw an off-white Chevrolet Cruze, who’s driver
looked very confusing in itself. He’d drive an inch and stop, then drive a bit
and stop, but would not cross the light even after signal was ON.
When I looked driver through the side glass, the gentleman
was constantly looking at me.
Just because his car was at the very front, traffic behind
was stuck and was depended on him.
Honking became loud by that time. Till then, I was also
confused as to why everybody is also not moving.
Suddenly, I realised, the gentleman was looking at me as to
seek my advice or acknowledgement on moving ahead, even though signal was
green. But why?
He probably could be driving through that road for the first
time, and may not be aware that the signal was programmed in such an odd way.
Otherwise, mostly a right turn indicator on signal board is ‘X’ out in red.
Don’t know if it was his fault or not, but I could see an
emotion around it.
He stopped because he saw me not moving especially when the
signal was ON. He may have found it suspicious and before driving further, he
wanted to figure out why was I not moving. Because, reason could be any. In
fact, at times signal don’t work.
So, he did not bother of honking, and instead chose not to
move unless he finds the answer.
It was dark and little foggy as well.
I then tried to look properly inside the car, and realised
that the guy was only looking at me. As soon we had eye contact, he moved his
head as to ask why was I not moving in ON signal.
OMG!! This one moment took my breath!
‘He had stopped whole traffic
just for my approval’ crazy!
I then gave him indication and explained in quick that I am
waiting to take right turn, and you can proceed. After that he moved forward
and traffic got normalise.
This made my heart melt that he chose to believe another man
(i.e., human) over some computerized traffic light, before proceeding further.
It developed a sense of respect for the gentleman to see how
conscious he is in his day-to-day life.
Normally luxury car owners don’t even care about the traffic
or rules, but this incident made me believe in subjects like anthropology &
psychology.
‘Technology doesn’t make our lives alive, it’s we all humans
who make it alive’
‘Technology does make our lives easy, and may give joy
temporarily’
** End **
#Humanness #KnowLifeBetter
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