Of fragile egos and flayed tempers

I recently had the opportunity to be the only dedicated witness to a 'middle-of-the-road' fight. That the driver of the vehicle i was in, was in the fight, didn't offer me much choice is hmm..come to think of it,a half-truth..more on that later.
So it happened one night that i hitched a ride on a cab. For the benefit of non-bangloreans, company cabs are another mode of transport here. They do official pick ups and drops for the concerned company, but take passengers for a fare on return trips. You pay them nominally (its investment free income for them) and they drop u wherever, as long as its on their route.
Hmm..so i was on a sumo at abt 10:30 in the night and travelling towards BTM layout. There was minimal traffic on the road and we were doing well, until we encountered a motorcyclist 'snaking' down the road. As we neared him, it appeared obvious, that he was drunk and not in much control of his bike. To avoid anything untoward, the sumo driver honks before going past him. Our man on the bike is not pleased and utters some pleasantries while we cross over. Not to be outdone, my guy returns the courtesy. Unfortunately, we reach a red light (silk board junction) and the biker promptly parks his vehicle across, in front of the sumo. A middle aged, shabby looking man, he looked perfect to get into a fight, he more than lived upto the expectation.
By now, the sumo driver is also out of the vehicle and the word duel has started,unfortunately for me though, in kannada. So I had to be content with the hysterical gestures and decibel level variations for entertainment. We missed the next green light, i feared for worse. So far the biker seemed to have the upper hand in the 'wordwar'. At the next red, luckily, a police car pulls up beside us. Peace seems to be restored as the biker reluctantly begins to move his bike. After all, he's totally at fault here, because the premise for the fight was, "how dare you honk from behind and disturb me!". Alas, our driver, feeling emboldened by the cop presence, starts releasing all his frustration. Idiot doesn't realize that the light is about to turn green. It promptly does, the police car leaves the scene and our sophisticated biker brings back his bike to position. Man! am i getting mad. Through all this, i have the option of leaving the vehicle and walking the remaining 1.5 kms home. Still, i stayed put.
Now both parties seem equally poised in the war. Things were escalating and I was expecting the first blow to land any moment now. But, surprisingly, it never did. It was all abt threats and phone call attempts. Our man, the biker, at one point starts to unzip to show his manhood, probably in a desperate attempt to reinforce his manliness. Fortunately, he stopped just short of displaying it. I wonder, what effect it would have had on the situation. Anyway, both of them then get busy, presumably trying to call their pally big shots. Nothing much happens on that front though. The fight goes on for a few more minutes after that and stops when both of them run out of expletives. The biker goes his way, the sumo its, but not before the biker brandishes a paper with the sumo's license no: and the sumo driver gives him an 'as if i care' look. Peace!