Driving Decoded Part 1

It has been twenty months driving on the smooth and forebodingly white-marked roads of Dubai but I’m still plagued with these contradictions. Dangerous and pleasurable in the same lane. Easy and challenging while parking. Mind-blowing and mindless in the space of a second. From the mean machines like the Ferraris and the Lamborghinis cruising the fast lanes to the driving school stained Nissan Sunny’s and the sedate Japanese sedans-not one of these four-wheeled creatures would deny experiencing the above said contradictions. As for the two-legged owners who make them go through it all, the accelerator foot is a mere trigger for the good, the bad and the ugly.  Impulse is an added emotion while driving here and you will be best advised to keep it under check.
Speeds on the highway give you the freedom to press it till 120kmph. On the road to neighbouring emirates Abu Dhabi you can exhilarate at 140kmph. Covering one fifty km in an hour twenty, no problem. Oh, how I wish roads back home, the rules back home, the radars back home could have made driving an experience. But I am soothed by the thought that lack of it at least prevents instantaneous death. Because, despite the precautions if you waver from the rules here you end up in a heap. You cannot cock-a-snook here and wish ABS will save you. But one thing that does help here is looking over the shoulder while changing lanes, getting into lanes or just being sane. If you can remember to do this then peace be-upon you.
Laziness can be lethal on these well-kept roads where minimum range is 60-80kmph. Slower than that will make you aware of shoulder glances from drivers passing by with words to the effect- where are you from, when did you get your license, are you on the phone or just what the….  That’s just a softer version of bullying on the roads. It gets harder when bigger machines boss the roads. The Tahoes, GMCs or the Patrols to name a whew! These makes, king the roads. So the bigger car you drive the more chances you have of coercing other cars to slow down, give way or just brake hard. Many have-nots aspire for them and those who have are either blissful or plain gloats.
As for me, I’m happy with a car that is neither too big nor too small. It’s neither a full SUV nor a sedan. It’s nether white nor silver. Oh well, I started with a pack of contradictions and I ended up with them!
Maybe I’ll do some straight talking next time. Thanks for reading the debut blogpost of DUBAIDEKKO…will be back with more on the city of ‘can do’.