Tossing a coin

It was 5.30pm. The traffic as usual was moving at snail's pace. Everyone would be in a hurry; it is the time when everyone’s temper would be at threshold that even a minor mistake by someone would invite furious honking, deadly stares and some innovative abuses!

And yeah, it doesn’t need to be a mistake – even an act of courtesy can put you in the “zone of music”.

My friend Drona and I were carpooling after a tiring day at work, with him behind the wheel. About 150 ft away from the traffic signal, when the light turned green and the cars in front of us began moving ahead, he chose to yield to a car who was waiting to merge on our road from a smaller lane.  As expected, the honking started started. Even I was surprised by his choice. It was even more frustrating to see that the car he yielded to has managed to cross the signal, but we had to stop as the light turned red!

So, I asked him why he did that at the cost of his own time as well as possibly delaying others behind him. He said, “someone had to yield, otherwise how would that poor guy ever get on the road in this heavy traffic?”.

I wasn’t convinced. I said, “we stopped for about 3 seconds for that guy and here we are waiting for the green for the next 3 minutes. Just imagine, the guy behind us might be in a hurry to catch his flight. Your act of kindness added 3 mins waiting to him here. What if he were to miss boarding his flight because of this 3 mins delay? And what if it’s the last flight to his destination? How would you take that?”

Drona smiled, “what if the guy I gave way to were the one in that same position?”

I didn’t have an answer. But I am still pondering, what would be the right thing to do? It’s like tossing a coin, it could have gone either way!