:: On the roads of UAE!

It all starts after the struggle of getting a driving license ends, we get excited and happy thinking that “its over”! Well, its not! I admit that the “FINALLY” adrenaline-rush is so irresistible, it is such a feeling in all aspects of life by the way, because somehow its attached to an achievement! But it’s also deceiving sometimes, and the UAE driving license is just an obvious example of that! Because right after it, a small less-annoying matter starts! GETTING A CAR! Your own vehicle, it has to be you, you have to like it, afford it, and be comfortable switching it on everyday and let it take you places!! Among all the choices, deals, salesmen paining your ass, friends giving you contradictive advices, your few-digits payslip and your own childhood wishes you eventually feel that you achieved something when you add one more key to your key-chain!  Again! A less exciting “FINALLY” experience! And now, as we think that we can drive and go wherever we want whenever we want, the roads take us by a surprise to an ever-lasting battle called “DRIVING ON THE UAE ROADS”.

Have you ever stopped and thought of the act of driving? Have you ever noticed that it begins when you set a distention in your head? Have you noticed how we draw a route in our minds? Have you noticed how annoying it is to decide a distention without being able to figure out the proper easiest or fastest path (or sometimes both because they are mostly different)?

You think you know how to get there! You just put yourself behind your steering wheel and do what you do the best!! “Because of course you think you are the best driver” and here where the fun begins! Tight parking spots, you wonder how you managed to fit your car there, and how the hell you’ll get yourself out of there! Entering a highway risking your life everyday! Speeding enough to keep the pace! Stupid assholes speeding behind you! Slow dumbasses in front of you! Speeding tickets! Horrifying congested roads! New detours that you don’t know about! Extreme heat!  And on top of that! The possibility of fatal accidents! And instead of focusing on the road! Instead of keeping the distention in mind, instead of being aware of everyone and everything around you that might hold you back! What do you do? WHAT DO YOU DO?

You distract yourself, you grab the mobile! You light a cigarette! You fix your make up! You shuffle radio stations SAME RADIO STATIONS hundreds of times! You adjust the temperature of the AC every 5 minutes between too cold and too hot! You read eye-catching ads! Drink you coffee! You clean the sun glasses! Sometime 2 or more of whats mentioned above simultaneously!  And everything else that put you a situation of missing the right exist, entering a wrong exist, taking a speeding ticket, or being involved in wide range of accidents that varies between a scratch on the body of the car to multiple murders JUST BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T PAY ENOUGH ATTENTION!

In any case! Its too late now! Coming back to the right exists involves U-turns, round-abouts, tunnels and bridges! And sometimes the worst of the worst, traffic-lights! And don’t get me started on how expensive it is to take the wrong exist! Wasting time, energy, and frustrating yourself, and your distention whether it’s a place or a person! And in accidents, I just leave you to your imagination!

WELL, FOCUS! Because this is your life, this is other people’s life! Drive safe! Drive responsibly! And I am not lecturing here! It took my money, energy, spirit, time, days of my life, the most beautiful years of my life were spent on the roads of UAE to finally be able to drive! And still learning, paying more attention everyday, and focusing more on my destinations, best routes, and the safest way to reach out to you! Trying to be on time in the right place all the time! On the ever-changing roads of UAE, I am still able to find my way! And I hope one day, you too find yours, with minimum cost and maximum safety! I also hope it’s the same way!! because great minds think alike

Music Mood: [ Wael Kfoury Law Hobna Ghalta ]

~ by Hamzeh Hamarneh on July 14, 2009.