I took my driving licence in 1960 at Kanpur. My instructor – an experienced driver of our office car (in those days there were no driving schools) cautioned me and gave some tips on how to manoeuvre through the traffic. Even at that time, Kanpur was a very busy place and driving was a Herculean task.

My instructor told me that I should keep an eye on both sides of the road in addition to looking ahead while driving, especially at the rickshaw ahead.

Once, while I was driving, a rickshaw ahead of me suddenly stopped and the rickshawalla spit the pan he was chewing. I was fortunate enough to slowdown and negotiate my car. On another occasion a rickshawalla, probably at the behest of his passenger, took a U-turn without bothering to show any signal and I narrowly missed him.

Rickshawallas normally park at the road junction in such a way that they can watch all the four roads and look for passengers. This used to block my view while turning left. I then realised that instead of looking out for a signal from the rickshawalla, I should read his body language and guess his movements.

Later, when I relocated to Hyderabad, I found the cycle rickshawallas behaved the same way as in Kanpur. The only difference here was that unlike in Kanpur, the seat of the rickshaw was lowered even while its hood was up, allowing me to see the rickshawalla ahead from my driving seat.

Settling in Bangalore after my retirement, I thought that it will be easier to drive here in the absence of cycle rickshaws.

To my utter dismay, Auto rickshaws were behaving the same way as the rickshawallas. As licence-holders, I thought the Auto drivers would adhere to the traffic rules. But, things became difficult for me, as I found it hard to read their body language. Thanks to the IT industry, another breed of drivers has started to occupy the roads: those on the wheels of taxies or cabs.

Although many of these cabs display bold notices on the rear glass the telephone numbers to report, in case the driver is rash or does not follow the rules, hardly any body reports as it is impossible to note down the ten digit telephone number while it races away at a very high speed. Maybe, they are the same breed as rikshawallas and autowallas.