Believe it or not, I am one of those fortunate ones that still drives back and forth to office without hitting a single traffic light intersection. There are several junctions but none with red light countdowns. Inspite of this, as any Bangalorean would freely attest, pre-corona days, driving within city is something that very few would curse even on our worst enemies – you see humanity is still alive. I think it is a possible theory that some grandfather of BBPM director left behind a clue for a treasure in one of the roads. They seem to be always digging for something and never giving up :-). Add to this our usual blatant disregard for anything called (traffic) rules. But there was something that eased the pain, almost magical – audiobooks.
After I started listening to them, I completely distanced myself from the pain of driving. I cruise happily at 30-40 km/hr allowing everyone to overtake me happily while listening to someone who had taken the pains of researching a subject, summarizing it, making it in the form of an interesting book and reading it out to me. I know I sound like the US TV ads that are too good to be true but if is true. It has been 3-4 years now that I have been doing this – mostly from audible (Amazon). Audible is 200 Rs per month (or as I would like to think of it, 10 Rs per day or 5 Rs per trip for me). They give you one credit every month to buy audiobooks. There is also an audibleplus catalogue of books always available which covers a wide range of books – you can always find one that interests you
Well, it is not for everyone, so try it out – may start with a simple one like Harry potter (in Stephen Fry’s amazing rendering). My personal favorites or Sapiens, Bill Bryson books, The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. I was also stumped by the brilliant work of ‘Sri’ as he narrates the Ponniyin Selvan in Tamil (available from Spotify) with enough voice modulation differences for every major character. Just Brilliant.
Of course, the disclaimer is that you should be able to listen to an audiobook as how you would listen to a song or FM in your car. If you even have the slightest doubt that your driving would become worse, then stop. My case – my driving improved drastically – from getting irritated by fellow drivers (everyone is wrong expect me syndrome) to blissfully motoring along while learning something new just blows my mind away and brings a smile everytime I think about it.