"...there is no way I am letting you pass, dude...."

"...there is no way I am letting you pass, dude...."

... I declared, in my mind. About a year back, I was driving down the Mumbai-Agra highway, cruising at about 80 kmph. Then one of my fav numbers played on the music system and the hormones made my feet push the accelerator pedal a bit more. In the process, I zipped past a middle-aged man who was peacefully cruising in his car. 

Perhaps I passed by him too close, or he just did not like that I passed by him. The moment I passed him, he started honking incessantly! I looked back in the mirror, annoyed. He picked up speed, continuing to honk. I decided there was no way I was going to let this egoistic maniac pass. I pushed the pedal to zip ahead, feeling good about the moral victory. 

About a couple of kms later, I reached a junction that had some traffic. Google maps showed 7 min congestion. I was stuck behind a long trailer. A few minutes later, I saw the same car show up in my rear view mirror. To my dismay, he was in the next lane, which was moving quicker than mine. I knew it was a matter of time before he would get past me. That moment came and he was now next to me, still honking! I was pissed. There was no reason to honk when he was now going past me. I avoided looking at him. He then rolled his car window down and said "Excuse me". I ignored. He said again, now in a louder voice, "Excuse me!". I glanced sideways, ready to exchange a mean look and maybe some bitter words. "Your fuel lid is open" he said, before rolling up his windows, leaving me look tiny.

Apparently, I had made a fuel stop on one of the pumps and the staff and I both forgot about the fuel lid. For the past several kms I was driving the car with the fuel chamber wide open. I could have fixed it had I actually let the honking guy come next to me so that he could alert me.

- At times, we become way too competitive for our own good. Ironically, it often goes against our own interests.

- People at times will move out of their comfort zone trying to help you, but if we aren't mindful, it might appear that they are coming after you.

- Not all noise (honking) is offensive. At times, noise is needed to get our attention towards something important. Treating all noise as an annoyance and ignoring it might be catastrophic.

- Suspending judgement is a skill that's most difficult to master. Probably the most important one for our mental health, too.

Next time you hear unusual honking/noise, suspend your judgement and keep an open mind.