THE SAFE DRIVER
Al-Risala (English), May 1988, p. 23
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
THE SAFE DRIVER
1988 5 May 23-24 THE SAFE DRIVER (791) Road safety is life-safety A great deal of friction and unpleasantness in society could be avoided if only we were to realize that there are times when, figuratively speaking, it is better to go into reverse gear, or pull in to the side of the road, or make our way by side lanes, rather than rush ahead on into the traffic. Even when we feel we are in the right, it is better to avoid accidents by adopting evasive tactics.
A Mr. Mohiuddin Mohammad of Hyderabad has written to us to express his appreciation of how interesting he found the Bombay travelogue published in Al-Risala (Urdu) of the 17th October 1986. He writes: “Your travelogue is not only informative, but excellent in its style of narration.... Your meeting with the driver Hira Lal and your queries on his methods of avoiding accidents brought to mind another similar episode.
A certain taxi driver in all his 55 years on the roads had never once had an accident. Giving a lecture on safe driving, he said that it would take him not more than a minute to say what constituted safer driving. It was all very simple, he said. “The only thing to keep in mind while on the road was the belief that every other driver except himself was mad.”
We call a man mad if he is incapable of correct thinking and if his behaviour is irrational and unpredictable. In any encounter with a mad man, therefore, it is pointless to expect rationality. It is equally pointless to expect to solve problems by arguing or fighting with him. Solution to such problems lie in evasion, not in contention.
The driver who assumes that all other drivers are out of their minds can only blame their bad driving on this insane streak in them. But since one cannot reason an irrational person out of rashness and negligence, one has to concentrate on driving in such a way oneself that collisions are avoided. One has to be constantly on the look-out for the car in front stopping without giving a signal, the car in the rear suddenly overtaking one on the wrong side, cars speeding from side streets into the main road when there are no suitable gap in the stream traffic, and vehicles hurtling from lane to lane or trespassing on to the wrong side of the road. Even the traffic lights and traffic policemen are no deterrents to the mindless menaces on the roads, so that one has still to be careful when moving with the green light that some lunatic is not rushing towards one at an angle of ninety degrees.
It is a question of being absolutely perfect ourselves while expecting a far lesser degree of perfection in others. This is a philosophy which can be extended to many other spheres of existence. A great deal of friction and unpleasantness in society could be avoided if only we were to realize that there are times when, figuratively speaking, it is better to go into reverse gear, or pull in to the side of the road, or make our way by side lanes, rather than rush ahead – on into the traffic. Even when we feel we are in the right, it is better to avoid accidents by adopting evasive tactics.
Under ordinary circumstances, people may seem quite normal, but when the question of material advantage arises or there is a threat to one’s ego, even the most gentlemanly have been known to resort to ungentlemanly behaviour, and even the sanest of people descend into insanity. In such situations, the only course to follow is that of the taxi driver who was ready to assume the entire burden of correct behaviour without expecting anything at all in the way of decent behaviour from others.
Once when I was on the way from Hyderabad to Mehboobnagar, a bullock suddenly appeared on the road in front of our car. The driver neither cursed the animal nor tried to edge if off the road. He simply braked, stopped, observed its movements until he was certain which way it intended to move and then, giving it a wide berth, without either disturbing the animal or upsetting himself, he sped on his way.
All of life’s problems can be solved in this way, provided we are determined to assume responsibility ourselves in the face of others’ remain in that position, they are removed from the scene like so many straws blown away by the wind. Such events take place with amazing regularity, but all men think, in their heart of hearts, that they can only happen to others – never to themselves. Everyone imagines that he will remain unscathed even when it is God’s will that he should be cast down.
