Quaint encounter

The weather was pleasant as I drove from the basement car park. I was driving back from office. I stopped for a while on the road to adjust the straps of my footwear. As I started to get back on to the road, a guy hit me from the right. He was speeding on his bike on the road that was wet. Bang ! He swerved and fell. The mistake was on both the sides to be honest. I should have been in control to stop in spite of the low visibility due to rain. He shouldn’t have intended to cut me, could have slowed down on seeing me. Anyways I decided to wait for him to recover and signaled an apology – Mistake No 1. He asked me to come to sides, which I obliged – Mistake No 2.

“Look at what you have done”.
“Ok. Sorry” (Shouldn’t accept your mistake at all times)
“Why did you come like that?”
“You weren’t right either”
“Look at my bike”
The bike had one visible mark in the doom.
“Ok”
“See what has happened to my bike”
“What should I do?”
“Look”
“What do you want now?”
“Give me money”
“I don’t have money”
“I will file a case against you”
“Ok. Please do”
He didn’t expect that response.
“No! I want money”
He became quite aggressive
“You are driving a car, how can you not have money?”
“Get down”
“I fell down. Did you fall? Come out.”

I wish his words were so decent, but it wasn’t. He showed no respect. Thank God he didn’t use abusive language. He was so close to the window pane. I would have given him money if only he had the right attitude. For a second, I even thought may be he is not well do and this damage would mean a lot to him, but not with his behavior. I felt if I had taken my wallet to give money he would have just grabbed it. He didn’t let me raise the window pane. He was literally harassing me, he tried to force me out of car. It was getting beyond my control. I just backed up and drove away.

He was one male chauvinist with a very low self-esteem. Sometimes it is not worth empathizing with others. Though I was in the background relating to his psychology to co-operate, it wasn’t the right moment. One positive thing to have happened is I kept my cool all through out and wasn’t provoked.

It’s sad that such incidents make you less responsible socially. The next time anything of this sort I encounter, my instant reaction would be drive. It is more important to secure myself than think of the men of such low stature.

I wish and pray he heals mentally and physically from the effects of this incident.