Parking woes

Does the area around your house belong to you, just because you got someone to clean it up a little and cemented it? Here in Bangalore people seem to think so. I can understand 'no parking' signs in front of the gate leading to someone's house. But I just don't understand signs on the boundary walls of houses saying 'If you park here, flat tyre guaranteed'. When I first saw the sign in the lanes in 7th block Koramangala (behind Food world, hutch etc) I was quite surprised. Since then, I have noticed such rude signs in many localities.

I have been in a couple of arguments with house owners on this parking issue. One elderly lady once decided not to argue/reason out with me. She just popped up near the boundary wall of her house while I was parking and shouted at me so loud that I wondered how something like this could impact an old person so much. If it meant so much to her, I would have parked elsewhere had she just asked me. She needn't have started the conversation assuming that I wouldn't move. She needn't have risked her voice box and put her life at stake for this! After a couple of minutes of hearing her, I just slotted her in my mental list of elderly people who have issues with all of us 'software people' invading their city. The next day when I was in that area again, I noticed she had put some dry twigs and branches in the area around her house in an attempt to thwart anyone's plans of parking there!

Another time I waited in my car by an apartment complex for a few minutes. The watchman approached me and asked me to move out. He was quite polite and I tried reasoning out with him. Told him that my friends had just stepped out and would be back in 2-3 minutes and I would move the car if anyone came that way and wouldn't cause any inconvenience to anyone. He was on the verge of agreeing to let me be when a couple of drivers who had parked in the commercial complex nearby came up to listen to the conversation. One of them again didn't believe in talking/sorting things out and very rudely asked me to move out of the area. It caught me by surprise and I thought I'd first ask him to lower his volume and talk nicely. Of course it din't work and my face must have turned red when this roadside hero gestured 'get lost' to me as if I was scum. My friends came back just then. Then I realized that what I thought was rude and cheap was all very decent in comparison to what was to follow. What I had faced was preferential treatment on account of my feminine status. The crowd's true colors came out only after that. When I saw how they spoke and treated my male friends I was truly shaken. The whole situation had spiraled out of control for something really trivial. The irony of the situation was that the apartment's watchman who initially requested me to move out was nowhere to be seen!

There is lack of space. No doubts about that! Quiet residential areas are getting crowded with all these cars being parked because of businesses not providing parking space within their premises. Every resident is impacted some way or the other. But some people are not able to take all the chaos and are reacting. Some of them have decided that they will make their own rules and laws and devise their own means to enforce them. The best way to deal with this situation most times is to park far away from these kind of people even if it means walking 10 minutes to get to your car! Steer clear! A flattened tyre is a small issue...a flattened nose is not!