I regretted the decision of taking a cab to office today the moment the cabbie started the cab. He seemed to be one of those types who consider traffic rules in general and traffic signals in particular as totally unnecessary and are in a perennial rush to reach someplace. But I have been recuperating from (yet another!) attack of cold and didn't think I was up for traveling by a local train. So I had no option but to try hard to concentrate on the newspaper while curbing the urge to jump out at the best possible moment.

Finally a traffic police at one of the junctions asked him to pull over. The cabbie started muttering that he didn't see the red signal. What? He didn't see the signal? Isn't he supposed to look out for the signals on the roads? My heart fairly leapt into my mouth. The cop came to the cab and I wanted to shake his hand in gratitude. He might have just saved my life by stopping this psycho cabbie from rushing in the middle of the junction without first checking if he was allowed to or not. The cabbie grumbled more but the cop was adamant - you want to pay your fine here or at the office? The cabbie made a last-ditch attempt at pleading but to no avail. He got down and walked after the cop. Now I know enough about these traffic cops to wonder whether the cabbie paid the legal fine amount or got off by paying a smaller amount to the cop instead.

He was still muttering to himself when he got back to the cab. 'I didn't see the signal' as if that proved that he had been unfairly fined. In my opinion he should have been fined twice for failing to pay attention to the signal. He clearly expected some sympathetic noises from me. I refused to oblige. He was in the wrong and deserved what he got. Of course, I knew better than to voice my thoughts. So I kept on reading my newspaper.

But the thought that was uppermost in my mind was why do we take driving so lightly in this country when we know that even a second's lapse could turn fatal? Has life become to cheap?