Arindam Sil, actor

The sheer lack of basic driving skills amongst Calcuttans and in particular, the ones driving a public transport vehicle is appalling. There’s also a remarkable lack of consideration towards others. One thing that always makes my blood boil is when I’m stuck at a red light, and there’s inevitably someone honking from behind for no rhyme or reason.

There’s a very lackadaisical approach towards driving on our roads. You’ll see mini-buses madly racing each other on a major thoroughfare. You’ll see taxis speeding away with a remarkable display of rash driving and it’s futile to even speak of the autorickshaws. Recently, my car was totalled on Shakespeare Sarani when a taxi, speeding at about 80kmph — and mind you, it was at just 9am — crashed against it. Luckily my driver didn’t suffer any injuries.

The whole corrupt racket of issuing a driving license for money also has to stop. Otherwise, we’ll keep having an influx of drivers on the streets who can’t drive to save a life — theirs or others!