Prologue

The entire thought process of this article was evolved by a notion triggered by Thommu, our own achayan. May God be kind to him and may the Lady Luck bring him happiness forevermore.

Of all the addictions that I suffer, late night driving is one thing I love the most. Of course, you cannot count the other obvious addiction.

There is something magnetic about the entire thing that I have come to notice. Something that always sing to you. Something that always pulls us towards it. What can possibly be better than a late night drive, @50-65 kmph, windows rolled down, slight breeze caressing your face, the sight of the full moon now and then in between the trees that hover on both sides. And to add the cherry, if it is a just-rained environment. Aah! there can NOT be something more enjoyable.

But as usual, there will always be something to rain on the parade. Yea, you guessed it right. I call them headlights. I donot know, how many times I have lost my patience with the never dimming headlights of all those heavy trucks.

When you start the journey, with a very pleasant mood, Its like.. aah, headlights.. Let me dim mine. and probably he’ll do the same. Alas, they never do so! Another half an hour journey without any positive response, the mood starts its breakdown.

Then observing starts.. looking into the headlights of the coming truck, checking if they are going to dim the lights when I am doing it. its like Ok, I am being polite. I dimmed the lights. Now its your turn. dim the lights. <loop started (n)>tick tick tick<loop ends(n=0)>  Ok. You didn’t. Asshole. (turn the light back to bright) See?? see?? Even I have a bright light!
Note:n α 1/T.  =>as T↑, n↓… I call that level, a level of zero tolerance.

Now that we are in level of zero tolerance, we NEVER switch the light to dim. And many a times, we encroach into enemy territory(wrong side) to prove, Hell yeah, even I have lights.Self propagating loop starts, I propagate the screw-dom that I am in. gives a taste to every other driver who comes in my path. More the people who come my way, more will be the people who gets really pissed off!

It was only when Thommu pointed it out to me that I noticed..The problem is, I look into the light. Didn’t quite understand, right? Yea. I look into the light. when ever a vehicle comes up, I keep on looking into the headlight, checking to see if he is polite enough to dim the lights. To check if he is reciprocating to me. I keep on looking at it for so long, that I’ll suffer temporary blindness. Even if this particular experience is highly painful, I will not learn. I shout at them for not dimming the lights, I speed up to dissipate the anger, I do all those things which I am not supposed to do during driving.. Still I continue to look at the lights. I’m not gonna learn.

Thommu had a sure shot solution for this. When ever I detect that a vehicle is coming, look at the leftmost part of the road. Look at it so hard and look at it so carefully, and try to pull your vehicle close to the periphery of the road that you forget to do anything else. Even forget to look at the light.

Guys, I tried this out and you know what?? Its awesome. Well, its not false proof. Still, its better than any ideas I have come up with till date. Its simple, yet good.

Part 2. Life.

How many sms we receive daily preaching how to live our life! How many books we read, to help ourselves fare well in tough times! We read a lot, and we quote a lot. But I seriously doubt how many of us  are able to do that, when that precarious situation finally comes.

Today, I would like to add a simple thought to that pile. A simple thought that Thommu triggered. When a problem comes, we stare it for so long, that we forget that there is a way out. We look into it and loom over it over and over that we never see the solution. So long that we forget, there is hope.

I ain’t ask you to forget your commitments, live the life of a tinker. No. I simply suggest, that there is always a second door out. However small or insignificant it may seem to be!