Speed kills, but thrills..

I always found these advertisements by the traffic police quite hilarious. About how speed thrills, but kills and how drinking impairs driving and all that. Yes, yes, I understand the funda of propoganda and drilling it into their heads.. But the point really is this, we know all that jazz. How on earth are you going to get us to look at the situation differently..

But thats not the point, really.. I don't want to go on a tangent on mass-manipulation and influence. The point is this. Today is the 1st of June, and they've made it compulsory in this city to be wearing helmets today onwards. Yeah.. they announced it three months back.. Women have been chewing my brains on it for years now. My darling sister has been sitting on my head for the last 6 months. Dad's been on my nerves for the last two. YET, I have successfully (and maybe stupidly) resisted all this pressure to buy a helmet.

Its quite irritating. If you're claustrophobic, its even suicidal. It sweats, its uncomfortable. It restricts your line of sight and you really can't hear too well. You can't feel the wind in your face and you don't feel like you're flying either. For riders like me, who ride more according to the sounds around, lights and reflections rather than merely mirrors and signals, it impairs my riding. I'd be safer riding drunk. Now if you're going to tell me that it will protect my head in the unfortunate event of an accident, I'm going to say that if the cause of the accident is the helmet itself, then whats the point in it protecting me in the event of an accident. Yes, prevention is better than cure. But, really, preventing the need for a prevention of a cure is better than merely preventing the cure.. Don't you think..

So yesterday, I tried, once again, yet another attempt in my long line of attempts to be a changed man and a sincere law abiding citizen, to go and purchase a helmet. The attempt of course was a hilarious, ridiculous failure. So I took the car to office today.

But wait, don't judge me just yet. I go to this place thats quite famous for helmets and the likes and there's a line of policemen outside the shop to make sure nobody parks in the vicinity, so that they don't add to the commotion. So I go up to a policeman and ask him,

"Brother (In tamil, so it really doesn't sound so cool). How do you expect to me buy a helmet for tomorrow when you won't let me near the shop"

So he grins and says, "I understand brother (In tamil again, the sibling rivalry gets a little queasy now), but they won't understand"

"Now, who the hell is they?"

"The police"

Now, what can I say. I'm not a quitter, but sometimes, there is no point. Anyway, so I parked my bike further down the road and walked back to the shop. So I noticed, there are another 5 helmet shops on the same road that have sprung up overnight. They have partly downed their shutters and there are policemen outside each of shops restricting entry to minimize commotion and there's a mile-long queue (Well, not really, more like flies around a dead cow) of wannabe buyers. I stirred up the primal instincts in me, elbowed a million men and finally found myself victorious and inside a shop, WITHOUT any helmets left to sell. Of course, none of the million men knew that, and it would take all of them another coupla hours to figure that one out. Not much of a description needed really. Have you ever watched BBC / CNN? Ever seen relief material being distributed in Somalia? Moreorless the same..

And so I took the car to office today.

And all along the way, I found sincere, law abiding citizens, all of them with sparkling, spanking new helmets. Makes you proud, does it? Good. Me, Not at all. Makes me want to weep in the stupidity of it all. We are begged for our votes by some guy that we elect only to make rules that we ourselves don't really believe in. And we scramble like a bunch of desperate 14 year olds fighting for the only available issue of playboy. All because of somebody, who is somebody only because they begged and we gave..

Disclaimer: This is not to say that helmets aren't useful or necessary or that it is a bad move to make wearing helmets compulsory. It is merely the stupidity of not giving a damn about wearing helmets and going on a treasure hunt around the city to purchase one on the eleventh hour merely for a silly law dictated by our public 'servant' which cannot really affect anybody if nobody would abide to it. The stupidity. Theirs, yours, MINE. Ours..

P.S - More on the speed kills, but thrills funda later..