The Art of Crossing (Indian) Roads

I was cutting through the city traffic when I almost collided with a person trying to cross the road. Joy’s bike, with its superb handling, saved itself, me and the person. Clearly, this guy had not mastered the art of crossing roads. He was continuously twisting his neck from left to right and then back to left, in order to look out for the traffic. He was unsure of himself, and kept moving back and forth. An amateur. This is how a master does it:
He stands nonchalantly at one end of the road, never giving any indication when, or if at all he is going to cross the road. But his eyes are moving and gauging the traffic. They are estimating the speeds of the vehicles coming from both sides. It is here that experience plays an important part-more experience means better estimation. The master knows exactly how fast he can run. There are parameters of safety defined for crossing the road: If at any point of time, you are away from the vehicles by at least 1 meter, you are safe. But the master can, and often does, push this limit. When he finds an opportunity, he suddenly takes off like a cheetah, surprising those around him. He may change direction, but never the speed (It is here that the guy had committed a blunder- he had stopped). His ears filter out all the honkings. Within a flash, he is at the other side of the road. Once there, he again goes back to his nonchalant state, ignoring the angry drivers. He never looks their way, leave alone answering them.
There are some losers who wait and wait till the road is reasonably clear of traffic, look left and then right, and then walk across the road. Glory is never theirs and they die unremembered.