George Mikes makes humorous comments on the ‘traffic’ in Copacabana and Avenida Presidente Vargas in particular and Brazil in general. He opines that Brazilians are easy-going and leisurely characters. But the very same people, the moment they get a steering wheel in their hands, no speed is fast for them. They drive with such speed that one would be inclined to believe that gaining a tenth of a second is a matter of grave importance for all of them, all the time. The writer talks about the increasing number of vehicles in Brazil and says that the increase in the number of vehicles is making the pedestrian’s life more hazardous every day. He then narrates an interesting anecdote to give a clear idea of the number of vehicles moving on the road at any given time in Avenida Presidente Vargas.
He asks the reader to imagine that he is standing on one side of the road trying to cross the road. He will spend hours on end contemplating a fascinating problem: How can crawling traffic proceed at such a terrifying speed? He strengthens the same idea by another example. He asks the reader to imagine that a man on his side of the road suddenly catches sight of a friend of his on the other side of the road and starts waving to him. Then he shouts at him asking “How on earth did you get over there?” The other person will yell back at him, “How? I was born on this side!” The author leaves it to the readers to draw their own inferences.
