The walk to the gallows.

It is a chilly winter morning and I am walking down a street. I have to go across it so I head towards a zebra crossing. I notice a big red Hummer approaching so I stop. The Hummer stops as well. My expression goes from registering surprise to incomprehension to understanding. It dawns upon me that I have a right to cross the road and the driver honors it.

Cut to home: I am standing at an intersection; the signal indicates that I can walk. I gingerly step onto the road and notice a bike approaching, charging and honking like a enraged bull; my heart leaps into my mouth and I sprint to get to the safety of the other side.

Fellow toastmasters and guests, two silicon valleys: In Stanford I can shut my eyes and cross the road from any zebra crossing. In Bangalore, even if the signal indicates so, I have to be careful before crossing the road.

We live in the third-most dangerous city in the country when it comes to traffic. I understand that there are a myriad of traffic problems in Bangalore, but for now let us just concentrate on the plight of pedestrians. Let us pick one road in Bangalore: Richmond road. There is not one stretch from the Hosur Road junction till Richmond Circle where a pedestrian can cross the road safely.

I wonder why no one calls the Richmond road a 110 feet road given Bangalore-ans propensity towards using the width of the roads as their names. It is very wide. And what is worse is that there is no divider. So traffic is continuously flowing through the road like water in a drain after torrential rains. Some of it also overflows onto the sidewalk. There are zealous bikers who meander through traffic and believe that they can drive anywhere and everywhere. They honk at you if you are in their way. You jump out of your skin and forget about the fact that you are standing on a sidewalk specifically designated for you. One scene that I recall is more or less like this:

I am standing on a sidewalk on Richmond road. A very elderly person has somehow ventured into the middle of the road in the hope that people will slow down for him on noticing his frail shoulders and bent back. Guess what, no one gives a damn. They continue speeding around him barely missing him by inches. Eventually, I and two other friends venture into the sea infested with bull sharks and risk our limbs to get that person across.

What makes us so indifferent, so cold? Are we so naturally? To answer this question, let us take another example. I have an acquaintance, a lady, who I believe is sweet, very considerate and caring. Just the other day, I happened to be car-pooling with her. Everything went well except for the moment when she noticed a person stranded in the middle of the road. Knowing her, I expected her to slow down and let the person pass. She did not. A look of determination came over her face. She not only maintained the same speed, she honked at the person. It appeared to rattle his bones and he inadvertently took a step back. The lady had a triumphant expression on her face. As for the person on the road, fortunately for him, no there were no vehicles in the other lane otherwise a horrible thing could have happened. Latter I asked her why she did what she did. She told me that she was in a hurry. Hurry to get where? A place that is so important that a few seconds are worth risking a person's life. That is a silly reason.

Most of us are not naturally inclined to ram our cars and bikes into trees. And yet we are so heartless and callous when it comes to pedestrians. Please understand that when I talk about pedestrians, I do not just mean people like us who are agile and can sprint across the roads and jump to the safety of the sidewalks. Pedestrians also include small children and elderly people. If we are scared about our lives and limbs, imagine how young children cope up with this.

Some of you will say that pedestrians should be more careful. Careful? How many of us respect zebra crossings and slow down at one? Forget about zebra crossings, people jump signals. And then there are places where there are neither signals nor zebra crossings. So what are pedestrians supposed to do at such places? Wait endlessly or risk incapacitation to perform a simple activity as crossing a road.

Obviously, government is to blame as well. There is money to build elevated roads, put up hoardings, run Volvo buses and ironically, cut down trees but none to build pedestrian crossings. But we Indians are pretty good at this. Any ill in the society, and others, if not the government, are to blame.

So allow me to ask you: Are we a city of unfeeling individuals who are willing to handicap somebody to gain a few seconds in life? Are we, Toastmasters? No. We do care and we are going to do something about it, right? So please stand up and repeat after me:

I acknowledge that pedestrians are human like me.

I respect and will continue to respect the pedestrians' right to walk and will do my best to help them.

And I will never drive on sidewalks.

Great, I feel safer already. And just so that you know, I don't drive at all.