If you can drive into the sea, why dive?

Men break traffic rules by jumping lights. Real men - from Delhi-NCR, at any rate, break traffic rules by driving their cars into the sea. One of northwest Delhi's finest, Lalit Kumar Dayal of Mangolpuri, hired a Hyundai Creta SUV last Thursday and drove it to Goa's Anjuna beach during high tide. It is illegal to drive any vehicle in any condition on Goa's beaches. But, then, real mardangi for Dayal and his droogs is doing exactly that. The result: the car wheels got jammed in the sand, a phenomenon that usually happens where laws of nature are hard to break even by law-hiding Indians, with the subsequent consequence of the vehicle half-submerged in the sea. Dayal was arrested by Goa Police under Section 336 (endangering life or personal safety) and Section 279 (rash driving) of the Indian Penal Code. Dayal must have been surprised to find himself not booked under Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act - driving under the influence.

What is it about our fellow countrymen and their taking to break public safety laws, especially involving vehicles, that draws them like moths to a flame? Dayal is not alone in his hi-jinks. A Toyota Fortuner was recently driven illegally by a couple from Jaipur on the sand dunes in Ladakh's Nubra Valley. Another Gurgaon man drives a BMW into Pangong Lake.... Delhi-NCR's roads may have gotten a bit safer.