Monday, November 11, 2019

The World Seen from the Driver's Seat

by Sri Ajit Halder


I have been driving cars for over forty years and enjoyed watching interesting sights seen through the car windows.  I have witnessed a variety of lively scenes reflected by the mirrors. The car radio keeps me informed of the latest local and world news. The car stereo unit provides in-car entertainment of popular songs and classical music.  During the long periods I have been shut inside the car, I have always been in touch with the events happening in the world outside. Now I share with you the fascinating experience of human drama and actions I saw from the driver’s seat.

Imagine my typical working day starting at 08.30 in the morning.  I get into the car, start the engine and the car shakes off its inertia to speed ahead. I approach a crossroad, the traffic lights turn from amber to red and I stop.  I welcome this break to relax and look around.  I see the lady driver on my right lane utilizing the brief waiting time to comb her hair and apply lipstick.  May be that she overslept and found no time for make-up before taking to the road.  On another occasion, I saw a lady in the car on the next lane applying varnish to her finger nails and then throwing her hand out of the car window to dry her nails. Eye catching sights no doubt; the traffic light soon changes to green and concentrating on the road I accelerate away.

A driver’s main concern is the safety of him or herself and other road users.  I may be driving cautiously when suddenly a motor bike goes past me roaring and weaving between the lanes. I start praying to the Lord to protect our lives.  I observe interesting human drama being enacted in the front seat of a car.  In the lane next to mine once I saw a couple making vigorous gestures to each other.  They were obviously in an agitated mood and their action may safely be interpreted as an extension of an oral duel which they had started in their home.  I sincerely wished a happy ending of that dialogue and peace would be restored that evening at their dining table.

A town’s market street is always busy with commercial activities and here speed is restricted.  Once at a pedestrian crossing a lolly pop lady stopped cars and I noticed a white young woman pushing a pram in which two lovely babies were seated.  The babies were full of life and seemed to be enjoying the ride.  It presented an interesting sight to me more because one baby was Caucasian by race and the other baby’s skin was dark brown in colour.  It might not be a mistake to conjecture that the woman had admirers coming from different ethnic groups.  The two babies in the pram held up a colourful sight of peaceful co-existence before my eyes and was a proof in black and white that the theme of racial harmony is working in British society.

While driving to the university one cold morning I heard on the BBC Radio an absorbing interview with E.P. Thompson in Sue Lawley’s Desert Island Discs and it warmed my heart.  E P Thompson reminisced on his meeting with poet Tagore at Shantiniketan. He spoke with fervour of Tagore’s universalism and when he requested the record of Tagore’s song: “Purano sei deener katha bhulbi kire hai” to be played, my joy knew no bounds.  Thompson mentioned the similarity of the tune with the Scottish song “Auld Lang Sine” composed by Robert Burns and the theme of fellowship conveyed by the song was a fitting tribute to the universal poet Tagore.

Driving has taken me to many types of thoroughfares, busy A roads linking cities or tranquil B roads in the rural areas.  Motorway driving has its charm.  There are no cross roads and traffic lights to interfere with your smooth driving.  One, however, feels the urge to overtake the car ahead.  I remember cruising along M1 near Sheffield.  A Mini was in front and I felt like overtaking it.  I saw the face of a little boy close up against the side window and a woman, probably his mother, was the driver.  After several attempts I did overtake the Mini.  While I was passing I saw the boy’s face turned to sadness.  Clearly he could not accept the ‘defeat’.  Some words passed between the boy and the woman driver who quickly transformed herself into a rally driver and increased her speed.    I took up the challenge and pressed hard on the accelerator pedal to apply a   bigger thrust to the engine.  For a time our two cars were racing against one another. Then a spirit of chivalry overpowered me.  I eased on the accelerator and did let her overtake me.  As his car pulled ahead of mine, the boy gave a victory smile.  Although I lost the race, I felt I won the big smile of the little boy.

From the driver’s seat not only the sights but also amusing texts do draw my attention. In a traffic jam cars come to a halt so I can read the stickers fixed on the rear window of the car in front.  I remember reading a sticker: 

                                          I am not as posh as your car,
                                              But I am in front of you’.                       

The car was an old Austin Ten, it lost its youth but its humour was intact.  Some texts are not at all funny, one sticker warned me thus:

               ‘If you can read this sign, you are too close to me’ and I kept my distance.

The roadside hoardings also offer interesting messages.  One day driving past an old church I read on its board: ‘Jesus saves’.  In wavy handwriting someone scribbled alongside – ‘with the Halifax Building Society’.  

A sign on the board of another church on the roadside read: ‘The Carpenter of Nazareth needs Joiners.  I wished this message would inspire devotees to join church service in large numbers to worship Jesus of Nazareth.  Signs like these surely bring relief from the monotony of driving.

Occasionally, I have found my car trailing behind a funeral cortege.  Out of respect for the dead person, I do not overtake and stay behind.  This offers me an opportunity to muse on death as well as on life.  I contemplate on the time the dead person was a baby, its life began lying down in a cradle and now at the end of life that person is making the last journey lying in a coffin.  The eternal query –‘from where did life’s journey begin and where is it going to end?’ is intriguing.  By listening to the Sages one hopes to find the answer:

                                    Where do we come from nobody knows,
                                     Where we would be going everybody goes’.

In the course of driving an idea often comes to me - there must be a point where the road I am presently on is going to finish but happily at the end of a road I always find the beginning of another road. On occasions, after covering a great distance, when I reach my destination, the thought that fills my mind is this:

                    The journey is more interesting than reaching the destination,
                     Because the end of the journey brings to the end of exhilaration’.

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