Pahadi driving and game theory

Leadership requires systems thinking – and Academy’s way of teaching this is sending us away on treks where we can observe how the ‘pahadi’ drivers manage the swirls of the Himalayas. Prisoner’s dilemma is too difficult to appreciate in gyanshila, but this brings itself to us in the manner drivers anticipate the movement of other vehicles on the route – how they stop in advance where they could have gone ahead to actually end up in a lockjam; how they let smaller vehicles overtake at the earliest opportunity without waiting for their impatient horn!  (not having them honking when it would not be possible to give way without risk to all around). The valleys of Himalayas has incorporated this system awareness in them where they are driving not just their vehicle but that of others too; the whole gamut of vehicles  behaving in a mutually beneficial manner.

There again, vehicles, when their registration starts with DL or HR does not seem to understand this win-win logic.  The ‘pahadi’ way of driving must be a precondition to drive in the pahad. Not just that the hills cannot take any more of the vehicles from the plains without going into traffic jam till perpetuity; the manner of the ‘plain’ driving is dangerous in the short and long run. In the short run, they do not understand why the vehicles patiently wait behind each other even when the other lane is free. They exacerbate the jam by being on the wrong side. After the short term casualty of a traffic jam, there are at least two deleterious effect to this non-systemic, non empathic action of the ‘plain’ person. One is that the ‘pahadi’ driver also starts feeling the road rage and moves away from his win-win solution and tries to emulate the ‘loser’. Second is the deleterious effect on the ‘plain’ driver. Some well meaning ‘pahadi’ driver would accommodate this vehicle on the wrong side which might give him the impression that he is indeed having a successful tactic. He would not stay long enough in the hills to understand the folly behind his ‘losing strategy’. Reason why, the vehicles and drivers of the plains should not be allowed on to the hills before they agree to read this piece. Since that would be too megalomaniac on my side, I suggest they should be asked to take public transport or more importantly local transport on the hills. This would augment the livelihood of those here and also keep the hills a more sane experience for the tourists as well.

Academy: LBSNAA, Mussoorrie

pahadi     : People living in the hilly areas. They are much higher on EQ in comparison to those from the plains.