The modern thinking Indian

The level of anger in the general public seems to be growing. This is a trend that has been pointed out by studies and in many newspaper and magazine articles, with some of the ways that this is manifested is in terms of people being more ready to pick a fight, or unwilling to stand patiently in a queue when they are waiting for some service, or in terms of traffic. Traffic is one very clear area where the increased anger level is visible, with people unwilling to take jams patiently (manifested in people trying to take any route so as to avoid a jam), not following logic (a lot of jams in intersections happen when people want to be the first one through resulting in a gridlock, that when if they waited for even a minute to let other traffic pass through, jams would happen less), and displaying an incredible amount of anger very fast (there have been so many cases where people pick fights and actually cause physical harm to other people, where a single car in front of them that is being driven by a less experienced driver causes a lot of rage, and numerous other examples).
Well, in our society, we have to pay for our actions, and road rage is a very special example since we take actions when in road rage that we all will regret later. However, if the matter reaches a legal point, then the road rage is judged by the judicial system, and it can become very serious, just like this case where a person was sentenced to 4 years prison for an action committed when in the grip of road rage:

Four years after Balram Bansal drove his car into a marriage procession in a fit of rage, injuring four persons, a city court in a recent order sentenced him to a two-and-a-half-year rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine Rs 10,000 on him.
Additional sessions judge Narottam Kaushal in the order said: ‘‘I hold that the accused drove into a barat (marriage procession) deliberately with a view to teach the participants a lesson as he had encountered a traffic jam due to it. In a fit of rage, he had caused injuries to several people.’ ‘‘This is a case where the convict has exhibited extreme impatience. His conduct epitomises road rage,’’ the judge observed in the order.

This is an example of how not to lose your temper when in road rage. If you are getting delayed when driving or face some other action that causes road rage, think about the following:
1. A sudden surge in anger can cause things to happen that you might regret later
2. It just is not worth it, after all, the incident that causes road rage would be either a delay of a few minutes or some scratches on your car, but not worth the consequences
3. Count to 20 if you feel the anger coming on
4. Have a magazine or something in the car and concentrate on that if you have to wait
5. Think about a near and dear one if you feel the anger coming on and that should help cool you down
6. Have a list of things always ready that you can think about when you have some free time, like when you are delayed

Labels: Anger, Law, Punishment, Responsibility, Traffic