Parent's Nightmares

I was horrified when I read this at my friend Kiran's blog. Horrified at the callousness, the arrogance which led the smalltime actor to assume that he was entitled to behave like this and get away with it. And horrified because this is my daily nightmare - that my two elder kids will get knocked down by a speeding motorcycle or car on their way to the park. We live in a gated community and the internal speed limit is 15 km, but very rarely do I see people following that, particularly the younger generation. I realise I sound like an old-time aunty, but that's ok - maybe I am in many ways. Because I do expect many things that now seem to belong to a bygone era - courtesy, discipline, apologizing when one is at fault, being concerned for other people...
A few years ago I was in hospital after Chubbocks' birth when I had a scary call from my mom. She and dad were driving back after visiting me, and dad was in the righthand lane, driving at the speed limit of 60 kmph. Some guy behind them kept honking but there were cars all around so dad couldn't move over. Finally, when he spotted a break in the traffic he moved to the left to allow the other car to pass. That sodding bully, instead of passing, overtook my parents and parked his car across the road, blocking their car. When dad got out to ask him what the problem was, he knocked dad down and then drove off saying, "I'm sparing him only because he's old". Thanks a bunch, that was so considerate...
There is a girl who rents a room in the house next to my parents. She's a terrible driver, and once while reversing, backed right into dad's parked car and dented it, then looked out and glared at his driver!
I also posted a while back about this visit to the supermarket with Chubbocks:
"...when I had to go do the grocery shopping for the month as A was laid up, I roped him in to push the second grocery cart around. I had to forewarn him that he wouldn't get to ride in the cart shaped like a car since I needed him to help me shop. He was amazingly good about it, steering his cart carefully all over the store, lugging packages back and forth to load it up and not once complaining about either being bored or tired. It was, on the other hand, shocking to see how rudely people in India treat kids. Forget anyone smiling at the plucky boy helping out, but people had no compunctions shoving their carts alongside, bumping into him and not even saying sorry, pushing his cart away and carrying on. At one point, he was coming out of an aisle, and an old gentleman was coming the other way. We had right of way since we were heading for the cash till, but this rude old guy, who must have been a sextagenarian at least, pushed his cart at Chubbocks' cart really hard, so the little guy almost fell, and pushed him all the way back into the aisle and rudely brushed on past. I've been brought up with a respect for the aged and a belief in being polite to them but in the past couple of weeks, this is the second instance when I've noticed that they aren't any more polite or well-mannered than the average Delhi-ite..."
I'm really not sure what is the cause of all this anger, this one-upmanship, this feeling that people from all generations seem to have that they have the right to push other people around. And that if they make a mistake the person who witnessed that mistake had better apologize for being there.