A different kind of cap

I remember when I was little, growing up in the bustling city of Mumbai (Bombay as it was called then). And when I was old enough to start noticing things, one of the things that I distinctly remember noticing is that most cars had either a little hat on top of their headlights or they had a thick black band running on the top inch of their headlights.

Being the curious kind (yeah, I gave my parents hell because of that!), I asked my Dad why that was so. And he told me that there was a law in the city of Bombay at that time to have this mark. The reason? To ensure that people don't use the high beam all the time and even if they did, the beam would not hurt drivers coming in from the opposite sides of the road.

Now that sounded like a novel solution to me. Instead of changing people's behaviors and accepting the fact that some people will not change no matter what, the governing body of Bombay had decided on ensuring this idiot proof solution to make driving at night better. As infrastructure in Mumbai got better, most people would just put the panel lights on and use the very good lighting on the road to avoid switching on the headlights of their cars.

Cut to local time, Bangalore!

If you have driven on the roads of Bangalore, you will know what I am talking about. Not only is there no good lighting on the roads, there is no discipline whatsoever when it comes to drivers plying on them. Compounding the problem is this habit of a lot of people to use the high beam as the default option while driving their cars. This makes driving in Bangalore, more so at night, a nightmare (no pun intended).

I think the law of 30 years ago in Bombay would make a lot of sense in today's Bangalore. It will make life a lot easier for commuters like me who prefer to drive their cars to work and back.

What do you think?