ROAD HOGS AND MCPs

This new arrogant brashness and arrogance coupled with insolence scares me . I must admit that if I am walking and a bike or a car driven by a young man comes from the wrong side I do shout but not without a small niggling fear inside me of the person doubling back and ramming me from behind , just because I dared to call out when he was having fun.

My friend Kiran's post is all the more frightening because it happened in the confines of her apratment complex where her child was playing and which admittedly should offer more security than on the road , the perpetrator being a small time actor on the small screen with an unshaven face and a glare. The guy apparently doubled back , when Kiran protested and threatened to run down the child the next time , issuing a palpable threat and backing down only when Kiran's husband took him on , thereby proving

1. That he is a bully who likes to insult and take on people who cannot match him physically viz.. women and children.
   
2. That he is arrogant and insolent and intimidates women and children since he is supremely confident of scaring them off by cursing , swearing and yelling even when he is wrong - just because he is a man
   
3. That he has no finer feelings and hates apologising even when he is in the wrong , like almost running down a small child and not apologising
   
4. That he is a coward and is frightened when accosted by someone bigger than him or maybe just a man , like Kiran's husband
   

However he has to remember that other than being a public figure - (though I am not sure of his "bigness" since I do not follow TV serials and the plastic one dimensional characters that populate them ), he is also a human being , endowed I hope with a modicum of learning and I am sure ,values, of which love for one's fellow beings and compassion for all living things must surely figure.

And these values must surely add with them the rider of being aware of when one is wrong and when one is right and the discerning ability to adapt one's behaviour to the circumstances rather than behaving in a loutish, insolent manner as I understand from Kiran's post ? And together with it some road sense, proper driving skills and some ethics and manners .Is that too much to ask , Mr Gaurav Chopra ?

Although I have no knowledge about you ( although I did make an effort to google your name )isnt it unfortunate that we should meet like this, but as my other friend, Dipali says ,and I quote " but now for me your name will forever be associated with arrogance and cowardice."