When you believe the future could be bright when people collide, then please take your right!

While crossing corridors, pavements, getting in and out of the loos, there are those short pangs of silent uncomfortable moments of what I call the ‘left problem’.  In narrow gulleys, walkways or at a door when you and the other person are moving towards a collision projectile, you move to your left to let the other guy through but as it isn’t entirely possible to configure your minds on a possible quick game theory to decipher who will move left or right, well he moves to his right simultaneously and aha no one moves. Flummoxed, he moves to his left so that you both can rush to do each of your businesses but you as the ever courteous dude, move to your right simultaneously, and now when you two are stuck again it’s now your turn to flaunt asterisks! Giving up both of you simultaneously decide to let the other move only to realize, heck he’s not moving!!! With a disgruntled smirk somehow you two manage to find your lefts and rights finally.

In absence of perfect knowledge, these instances of momentary orbital blockage in our paths, repeat themselves only to irritate further. From my past years of these scratchy experiences, I have noted that in case there is a wall on one side both you and the other collision particle tend to stay on the side of the wall and many a times not venture on the open side. Similarly while walking on the pavement; both people tend to stick to the side where the pavement bars are. But all this just adds to the dilemma of the ‘left problem’ as there should be one simple fit it all rule we can apply.

Some of us wouldn't mind these moments, in case the other person were one of those interesting ones you have been lately spotting in the neighborhood / office and generously looking at his / her facebook profile, but if you had a disgruntled boss of yours or say someone you really have been wanting to avoid, then these occurrences slowly tend to enhance pre-decimal points (left hand side of the decimal!) to your already achieved degree of frustration!

Or is the left problem even more deep rooted in our psyche, say the case of overtaking on our roads, the rule is to overtake from the left, ohhhh overtake from the right? – that’s just for those non street smart folks. Take the instance of our roads, having a white line dividing the lanes. My left is clear and so is his, but he chooses to come on the side of my left because, his left in an unseasoned patch. At such instances I reminiscence and wonder if tying a friendship band on my brakes would make them work promisingly slightly better.

Is there an answer to fundamentally solve this collision confusion? – say always give a right of way to the lady?, but that poses another challenge, what if two women face each other is a ‘pheley aap’ standoff? If they were sisters in arms, then it would amicable solved, but if they were slightly on the darker side of each other’s mental cortex, the first set of carbon based life forms who would interact with either woman should be advised to buy a bucket of popcorn well in advance for the upcoming monologue with the 'pehley aap' confrontation only being the introduction, what would follow is almost certainly perhaps a life history of the combatant, and finally resulting into you deciding why our dearest Chidu is still not too bad, in comparison!

If they were guys, after probably attempts to solve this big waste of time, splitting a few mouthfuls of profane words and large eyeball popping glances the two would pass! Don’t tell me you haven’t encountered this on our roads.

But is there any amicable respite to this mentally saturating but simple irritant?

Yes! Perhaps a device or an app that hurls abuses when you waiver from your true left or rewards you with mushy words when you have walked the right path, all closely ingrained to (a) our promotions, (b) our credit scores, (c) bank balances and (d) love life!

Till such an app is invented and installed, pray we remember ‘your left is your fundamental ‘right’' and and so is mine’. 

It is only when you believe the future could be bright when people collide, then please take your right!

Cheers