Alokananda Roy, dancer

nI admit that the traffic scene in Calcutta has vastly improved over the past few years. But invariably, I still get very angry when negotiating my way through the traffic, seeing the abysmal amount of respect we have for rules. As pedestrians or drivers, we just take it for granted that we have right of way. We jaywalk, we overtake, and we use wrong lanes and then blame the police for traffic snarls. Not to say that the cops sometimes don’t turn a blind eye, but things would be much better if we were responsible and not in such a tearing hurry, often for no good reason. We spend public money on road safety measures. We complain for all we’re worth and then, we don’t use them! Each one of us wants to go first, without any consideration for the safety of one’s self or others. And often this leaves us stuck for hours because everyone else has exactly the same idea!