Honking in traffic

The incessant honking on our roads is starting to get to me and I have been trying to think about why we Indians tend to honk so much. The primary reason, I have come to believe is that most drivers and riders use honking as advance notice of claiming right-of-way. If they see someone about to cross the road ahead of them, they jam the horn button and speed up. This is peculiar to India. In any other country, the usual response is to slow down and let the other person pass. In some countries of course, drivers would pull out a shotgun and blow the offender away. Fortunately, that kind of road rage is relatively rare in the civilized parts of India.

I wonder if this tendency to claim right of way and speed up instead of slowing down is a result of growing up in constrained circumstances. We are hard-wired to stand nut-to-butt behind the guy ahead of us in line, lest someone should cut in before us. And with waiting lists on the train bookings and a limited amount of milk available at the milk kiosk, this would mean going home empty-handed.

So there - honk away and claim your right.

Pilot action

They say air travel is safer than driving your own car, in that the changes of meeting your maker after an air crash are far, far lower than the chances of dying in an automobile accident. Some years ago, especially after 9-11, there was a slight tinge of worry about hijackings, but with increasing airport security, it was easy to put that thought out of one's mind.

Now we have pilot suicide to worry about. The Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps was all but certainly a result of the co-pilot deciding to end his own life; and too bad for the other 150 souls on board. MH 370 is also starting to look suspiciously like pilot action rather than pilot error or equipment malfunction.

So now we have one more thing to worry about. You might want to take a good look at the eyes of the cockpit crew as they board the aircraft when you are in the queue at the gate waiting to board.

Just saying.