“From the Streets We Drive, and the Tempers We Carry”
A Talesmith Short by Rajesh Muthuraj
Every morning, the same drama unfolds on our streets: the symphony of honks, engines, shouts, and sighs. What should be a routine commute often turns into a wrestling match on wheels. Two motorists lock horns over a tiny scratch. A biker curses at a driver for cutting too close. A pedestrian kicks a car in anger. We scroll past such videos daily, almost numb to the madness.
But let’s pause for a moment. Why are we so angry on the road?
The Boiling Point of Everyday Life
Road rage isn’t born on the road. It’s born in our homes, our offices, our endless schedules. We wake up late, scroll through bad news, race against time, battle deadlines, and then, just as we’re running on fumes, someone cuts us off at a traffic signal. That tiny spark lights a fire that’s been waiting all along.
It’s not about the car in front of us. It’s about everything we haven’t said, haven’t released, haven’t breathed out. The road becomes our punching bag.
A Culture Addicted to Speed
We are a generation that worships speed. We want faster Wi-Fi, faster deliveries, faster promotions. The phrase ‘take it slow’ has almost become an insult. So, when we’re forced to crawl through a jam at 8 km/h, it feels like a personal failure.
We forget that slowing down is not losing. It’s surviving.
On the road, each red light feels like a challenge, every overtaking car feels like an opponent. We aren’t driving anymore, we’re competing. The steering wheel turns into a control stick for our egos.
The Disappearing Art of Patience
There’s a word we’ve quietly deleted from our dictionary: patience. It’s not just about waiting; it’s about understanding. We’ve lost the ability to imagine that the person ahead might have a reason; maybe they’re learning to drive, or they’re old, or they’re simply tired. Instead, we choose judgment. We press the horn a little longer, shout a little louder, and leave our better selves behind.
But here’s the irony: rage doesn’t make the road move faster. It just makes the journey uglier.
Behind Every Horn, a Human Story
We see vehicles; we forget the humans inside them.
- The woman speeding through traffic might be late to pick her child.
- The man driving the rickshaw could have been up since 4 a.m.
- The bus driver honking endlessly could be enduring a shift that’s stretched for twelve hours.
Yet we react as if we’re the only ones with a story. The moment anger takes the wheel, empathy gets thrown out of the window.
And that’s the real tragedy of modern traffic; we’re all moving, but none of us are connecting.
The Road as a Mirror
Every lane, every turn, every jam reflects who we are as people. The way we drive says more about our society than any statistic. Our impatience, our disregard for rules, our refusal to yield; it’s all there in motion.
If we can’t show kindness on the road, where everyone’s just trying to get somewhere, where else will we show it?
The Quiet Revolution: Choosing Calm
It’s easy to be angry. It takes real courage to stay calm. Imagine if we made small, silent rebellions against rage:
- Let one vehicle merge in front of you.
- Stop honking just because the signal turned green a second ago.
- Offer a nod or a smile when someone makes a mistake.
Tiny gestures change the mood of the road. They remind us that we’re not just drivers; we’re humans navigating a shared chaos.
The Human Traffic Jam
Maybe road rage isn’t about traffic jams at all. Maybe it’s about the emotional jams we carry, stress, pressure, fear, loneliness. The car just becomes a container for it all. The moment someone tests our patience, everything spills out.
If we learned to manage that inner traffic, perhaps our outer roads would be calmer too.
The Road Home
At the end of every commute, there’s a destination; a home, a family, a pet waiting by the door, a quiet dinner, a bit of peace. What sense does it make to arrive there angry, shaken, or not at all?
We owe it to ourselves and to others to drive not just safely, but sanely. Because it’s not the potholes that are destroying our roads; it’s our tempers.
So, the next time you grip the wheel and feel that surge of frustration, remember that everyone around you is just trying to get home too. No one wins in a road fight. But everyone wins in restraint.
Let’s make our roads less about rage, and more about respect.
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