Parking etiquette

Right in the middle

Not a day would pass without two of the walking partners of my wife coming to our house every evening and leaving their footwear slick at the centre of the entrance before getting in. Finding their practice a hurdle for the movement of others, I would furtively pick them up with my toes and place them aside from the entrance, absolutely unbeknownst to anyone. People frequently arrive at wedding halls, temples, and other gatherings with their chappals, slip-ons, shoes, and other footware sloppily placed right on the way to the entrance, not caring a hang for the trouble it would cause others who left theirs later.

Some of the cyclists reaching the venues of social or other events on cycles mostly don’t care to park their cycles by running the front wheel of the bike into the gap provided for each cycle at the stand but standing them at the entrance to the stand and leaving scarcely any space for other cyclists to even enter the place, let alone parking them. This often results in letting the rows of cycles lean one upon the other later. Such ‘mal’practises are followed by some of the more insolent cyclists, which is there for us to see in almost every stand.

When it comes to parking cars and other automobiles in towns, those on wheels have a harrowing time looking for a suitable space to park their vehicles. Here I relate an incident where my wife and I, accompanied by our son, his wife, and daughter, had a difficult row to hoe when we returned to the parking lot at a late hour in the night after feasting our eyes on the beauty ofthe Brindavan Gardens (KRS) near Mysuru.

Finding our small Santro amidst three big school buses, all parked cheek by jowl around it, we stood perplexed for a moment, not knowing how to take it out. After a little while, assisted by a few good men, present around the spot, luckily for us, we managed to push those buses—all leviathans compared to our small car—and reverse our car up to the entrance to the parking lot. Thanking the valet and others profusely who did us a good turn with nothing in return, we got into our car and hit the road to Mysuru.

Given the rising number of four-wheelers these days, particularly cars in all the states, the provision of separate parking lots for cars and other species of vehicles is a huge relief. Particularly, separate parking for cars is a boon to their hapless owners, who can now breathe a sigh of relief from tiffs, brawls, slanging matches, and even road rages that cause gridlock.