Why should boys have all the fun: is the catchphrase of a two-wheeler advertisement on the telly. While that might be true for reel-life in a village scene depicting a village belle who turns out to be educated and has a good ride — in real life, boys are truly having all the fun (while riding at least!).

The reasons are plenty: ogling women/girls riders of all ages and stages — apart from the fact that men often expect the female sex to give them way on a road, which, unlike them, does not discriminate.

While it is bad enough to encounter red-orange “rockets” from men of all ages who spit at will, on the road, the dirty stares of the cocky sex, often hamper a woman/girl’s riding speed so much that she would rather slow down (or go too fast!) rather than go under a visual scanner. Women and girls feel no safer in buses as well, despite a separate row of seats reserved for them.

Our Bengalooru is a plethora of all kinds of people. Different little worlds tucked in various ends, stitched together with a delicate “cosmopolitan” thread.  But, when it comes to male versus female, in any part of the country, it is always the woman who has to, time and again,fend off the demeaning stares, eve teasing and general disrespect. Whatever the speed of development and era, the status of women and the identity they crave, will remain a blur for a long time to come.

While it seems impossible to expect respect for women on our roads, the least the male populace can do is not spit on the “well-maintained” (with some dangerous potholes here and there) roads and pollute them thus.
It is a virtual “day-mare” to be parked alongside a bus at a traffic light, lest one encounters the liquid “garbage” that people so carelessly emit anywhere. It’s ironical that when these very people travel abroad they are the epitome of culture and manners. Maybe the fear of law and law-keepers works there.

While in a country like the US or Singapore, even if you take your pet dog for a walk, you have to pick up its waste in a bag, in good’ol India, the person litters the road with his own! But then, the terms — law/law-makers/law-keepers in India all tantamount to obscurity. There are no equal laws here, hence no respect for what there is in the name of law and justice.

I can only imagine what a foreigner would feel while travelling our roads. A first reaction would probably be that the person spitting is probably nauseous and needs a call to 911 (emergency first aid number in the US)! But then we Indians can assure him/her, “Relax dear and welcome to India”.

I have not seen a single woman spitting on the road till date, specially no woman rider/driver. Does this mean manners are now totally a woman’s prerogative? Too bad this does not occur to the “stronger” sex while claiming supremacy.