Kathmandu is full of reckless road users, whether they are pedestrians, or bikers, or motorist, or public and school bus drivers, or heavy load truck drivers – whether men or women, old or young or children, they are always in hurry. It feels they value in reaching their venues more than their own life. Unfortunately, that is not the case at all. We are always known for coming late in every program. The term Nepali time is so popular that there is not a single event that starts in time, not a single flight that takes off in time. Even the programs organized by the influential international parties usually have delayed start due to late arrivals of the chief guests. Being late is generally a status symbol, people in power comes late because they have so many affairs to sort out. Irony is that, we have tradition of seeking for auspicious time called sait/muhurt that have accuracy of split seconds which we disregard it nevertheless. This has surely discouraged people who comes in time, who believes in punctuality. In fact, this has actually punished them. I believe this is the reason we don’t give value in time. This is the same reason our development projects are prolonged for infinite time because we think being late is normal, extending times are normal and delaying events are normal.
Now going back to road, I still wonder why people are violating speed limits, why people are crossing roads haphazardly, and what would they gain from saving few minutes more, walking few steps more because we are not reaching our venues in time anyway, our projects are not completing in time anyway. Every year, thousands of people are injured or killed in road accidents in Kathmandu. Many of these accidents are caused because you are always in hurry. Why take risks that can shorten your life? Be cool and use roads safely!