The importance of being self-important

One of those rare events - my going to a Mall and we have parked a little distance away from the entrance and apologised to five separate car cleaning crews for not giving them any service opportunity and I always feel abashed because they give you that sneery, weary "what an ass!" look and what can you do, your car is just not dirty enough.
I notice there are several vehicles (mostly SUVs) going around in circles and not parking. It comes to pass that they will continue to circle until they get a parking spot near the entrance. There is something prestigious, I believe, about parking nearest to the door and you lose brownie points with yourself and your ego gets a dent if you do something infra dig like park ten lanes away. Also, you lose 'face' or something if you have to walk 35 metres, so what you do instead is that you go about in every circle in the basement parking of a mall till your face is saved, never mind that your common sense is crippled. So far, no one has really been able to explain to me the logic of this ego trip or the time spent on this absurd exercise.
The same absence of sense goes into avoiding Salik like you were solving an Agatha Christie mystery. A major effort in stalled traffic, low gear consumption of fuel, a torturous route, several turns and traffic lights, an exhaustion of time, all this to gain and exult in some sort of triumph that you saved a few dirhams. Never realise it kind of evens out anyway except for the aggro which is all yours for free.
Have you ever not wanted to have a fight or argument because the issue doesn't deserve it but the other party is aggressive and belligerent and just won't let go? I have seen this in road rage so often and it always amazes me that so many of us have so much energy to engage in the futile.
Like this elderly gentleman who had parked his SUV behind a car to rush to the pharmacy to buy a medicine. obviously, unless he was buying nail clippers. While he was inside, the owner of the blocked car arrived and started getting heated up. Agreed, you are cheesed off and it is annoying but in the less than three minutes within which the SUV guy arrived carrying meds (not nail clippers), this car owner had wound himself up to the point of cardiac arrest.
He was screaming and screaming and screaming again, and gesticulating like the world had come to an end and Armageddon was just around the corner and the doomsday clock was tolling and when he saw this elderly person reach the car, he began to yell again and this guy kept saying sorry but it was an emergency and he was polite and apologetic but no, the owner of the car would not let go. He then kicked the tyre of the SUV and let off another stream of invectives and shook a fist and thumped the car and this elderly person quietly drove away.
You would think that is the end of it, that the tantrum thrower would call it a day and buzz off in his vehicle seeing as how he was in such an unholy haste a few minutes earlier. But no, now that he has attracted a motley audience of about 16-odd folks, who were lured by the shouting, he is on a roll and will not stop.
This is truly the best part. The offending SUV has gone but this man is still shouting and raising his voice and telling the knot of people watching this altercation about idiots and fools and brain-dead drivers and he goes on for several minutes.
People nod wisely and then drift away. Not much point when the accused has left the stage but our friend is now seeking approval from a couple of mates and still yelling.
And I am thinking you are ruining your health, raising your blood pressure, driving yourself into a foul mood and the guy who blocked your car for 180 seconds has gone. Get a life. Are you so spoilt, so imperial, so important that you cannot brook a three-minute delay but you can shriek for 10 without cause?
Sad thing is so many of us are like this, crouched in a corner waiting for slight so we can start screaming over trivial pursuits. What is it that makes so many of us like this? A misplaced sense of self-importance. An inferiority complex hidden by a brittle arrogance. Wealth. Some absurd idea of your rights and a paranoia that you are special and everyone is gunning for you. Take your pick. But stop shouting.
The other day I saw this person screaming at a delivery guy for parking his motorbike in front of his garage door. He just came out of his villa and began shouting at the man to get his bike the hell out of there, he couldn't read the sign: it said "no parking", uneducated slob.
Odd thing is that there was no car either coming out nor entering and so nothing was being blocked. And the delivery was for the same individual who was doing the yelling but he would not take delivery till the motorbike was removed. Just stood there gesticulating and displaying his superiority. Makes one wonder sometimes.
wknd@khaleejtimes.com