Bangalore Traffic, Part 2

See previous post Bangalore Traffic...

Normally I just bitch and whine. But one day, when something crazy happened to me on the road, I thought I should try and do something about it. BTW, something crazy always happens to me on the road. I've been rammed thrice on the road so far, always from the back. The first time it was a serious accident. One speeding call center driver hit me hard enough to cost me close to 13k in damages. The second time I got tapped on the back by a bloody truck and now I've a smart dent to show for it. The third time was today by another taxi. Thankfully nothing serious happened, but thats another day's story. Anyway, back to the first story.

On 26th June, I was nearly hit from behind by a crazy SOB driving a white Sumo. Its probably one of the worse cases of rash driving I have seen. On a narrow lane inside Electronic City Campus, this sumo driver came at very high speed from my left and tried to overtake me. Unfortunately for him, there were some pedestrians in front of him and on my left and he very barely managed to avoid driving over them and subsequently barely managed to avoid hitting the rear of my car. Even after that he swung wildly to the right and tried to overtake me from the oncoming lane. I stopped him and took his license number. It had a Government of India Ashoka seal on the license plate. As usual the driver was extremely rude and abusive. In fact he asked me to call up any traffic inspector right there and “he would see what I would do”. He brought his vehicle in front of mine, got down and came to my car, all the time abusing and acting in a very threatening manner. I did not argue with him, just took his license number and left.

Bangalore Traffic...

...is chaotic at best, and dangerous at worst. It is horrible driving one's own vehicle in Bangalore. Most public transportation drivers think they own the road. By far the worse drivers on the road today are the taxis and IT company vehicles.

I drive daily on Hosur road to Electronic City and I am appalled at the way taxis and IT company vehicles drive around. These are three types of vehicles: Qualis, Sumo and Indica, all white, with yellow number plates. They all drive similarly, with little regard to traffic rules, cutting lanes, over-speeding and generally creating a nuisance on the roads. Their behaviour is a threat to the rest of us, non commercial drivers. These people increase road rage, cause accidents and makes driving a very unpleasant chore. What is most amazing is that the police turn a complete blind eye to their antics. Sometimes I stop such drivers on the road and threaten to complain about them. However, they show no fear at all about the police. They are all extremely rude, uncouth and brazen, abusive and threaten us instead, and generally ask us to do anything we want, secure in the knowledge that nothing can be done to them. How come this attitude is allowed to foster? And why doesn’t the traffic police do something about this?

Can I be an entrepreneur?

I was born intelligent, education ruined me. Might be more truth than falsehood. Ever wondered why a lot of very successful entrepreneurs are actually school/college dropouts? I'm doing my MBA at IIMB and I've been talking courses that deal with entrepreneurship in some form. I've been wanting to be an entrepreneur for a long time... in fact that was one of the primary motivations to do the MBA. I was optimistic, excited to hear about all the success stories, ignored all the unsuccessful stories and knew that someday I would have an "idea" and then turn it into an entrepreneurial venture. Ha ha. How naive.

Today I've studied about entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, about creating new ventures, innovations, VCs, business plans, revenue models, growth, funding, equity, yada yada, until I have the stuff growing out my ears. And now suddenly I've grown cold feet. I'm scared to be an entrepreneur.

I'm about to sell out on my dream unless I have more gumption and guts.

Indian Government trying to amend RTI

This is a copy of a mail from Prof Trilochan Sastry to IIMB students:

The Right to Information Act is being diluted by the Government. Here is the PM's letter to Anna Hazare on the subject and two Press Notes in response by Civil Society Organizations.

It is clear that the letter of the PM and what the Civil Society people are saying cannot both be true.

The RTI is a very important legislation and excluding file notings from public view is the first step in rolling it back. We will give greater chance for scams and corruption in Government to continue.

In case anyone wants to voice their opinion to the Government, you can write to:

Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam
The President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi - 110 004
Fax: +91-11-23017290, +91-11-23017824
Phones: +91-11-23014930 Ext 4211,4400, 4260 (Secretary of President)
+91-11-23013488 Ext 4218 (Personal Secretary of President)
Emails: [email protected] (Press Secretary of the President)
Write to the president at [email protected]

Dr Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
7, Race Course Road,
New Delhi - 110 001
Fax: +91-11-23016857, +91-11-23019545 (PM Office)
+91-11-23015603 (PM residence)
+91-11-23018668, +91-11-23015470 (Residence)
+91-11-23012312, 23018939 (Office) +91-11-3016996 (Joint Secretary of PM)
+91-11-3018939 (Personal Secretary of PM)
[email protected]

OR

Email to PM at http://pmindia.nic.in/write.htm

Sonia Gandhi
+91-11-23014481/23012656
91-11-23018651 (FAX)

Thanks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trilochan Sastry Phone: 91-80-2699-3285(O)
Professor 91-80-2699-3225(R)
Indian Institute of Management Fax: 91-80-2658-4050
Bannerghatta Road
Bangalore 560076, India
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------