I'm a traveling soul And every mother's son....

12 May 2013

Once again before getting on with the blog about New Delhi, I need to insert a date appropriate commentary. Today is Mother’s Day. I was pleased to find out that is celebrated in India as well as the US and on the same day. So, Happy Mother’s Day to all the mother’s in my life: my mom and mother in law; my favorite mother, Rae; my daughters and daughter by marriage who are all growing into outstanding mothers in their own right; and to all the women who have nurtured, influenced, and guided me whether they had the title of mother or not. You all have influenced my life for good in ways that are beyond description. Thank you for being who you are!

Now on to the blog: One thing that all visitors to India, myself included, seem to like to talk about is traffic. The combination of inadequate roads, lack of maintenance, too much volume in too little space, and incredible array of vehicles, animals, and people sharing the same space, and complete disregard for lane discipline among drivers makes for some interesting experiences. I don’t think I can actually do justice to the heroic adventure it is to drive on Indian streets but I will try to at least provide a little color commentary.

First, I will say that Delhi does not have the worst traffic I have experienced in India; not by a long shot. That honor would have to belong to either Mumbai or Bangalore. Still as Mercucio said in Romeo and Juliet, “…merry, tis enough.” I used to say the good thing about Delhi traffic is that it moves so slowly that no one can really get hurt. Well, after yesterday I can’t say that anymore. I worked a half day yesterday and the drive home that normally takes 10 minutes on the weekend, or 20 minutes at the end of a work day, too an hour and a half. I found out this morning from our driver that four people had been killed in a wreck that involved a bus, a tuk tuk (see below), a car, an ice cream trolley, and pedestrians. I guess it actually could have been much worse.

Well on that sobering note, on to something a bit lighter.

The vehicle above is called a tuk tuk. Or auto rickshaw. Or rickshaw. Or taxi. I have it called many things and it seems to have different names in different towns, but I learned it first as tuk tuk, so that’s what I am going with. It is probably the most iconic vehicle in India, I believe. They are probably used elsewhere but I always associate them with India and they are everywhere. The only difference is the color combinations, which vary from city to city and now some run on CNG, as the one below does. I must say I haven’t seen the CNG has made a noticeable difference in the air pollution.

When you drive down a road in New Delhi you are likely to see a variety of vehicles. They will all be swarming together, interweaving through traffic with really the only rule is watch out for yourself because no one else will. If a road is designed for three lanes of traffic, there will be a minimum of five lanes of vehicles with bikes, and motor bikes intermingled, so that every inch is occupied. Then, just to make it interesting a car or truck will go against traffic on the far edge of the road (I almost wrote lane but that is a misnomer) because it is easier to go the wrong way for a quarter mile or whatever against traffic than it is to make a U turn, drive WITH traffic for that quarter mile or whatever, and make another U turn to get where you are going.

This is particularly fun at night on more rural roads where the use of headlights appears to be optional.

I keep getting side tracked – kind of like the traffic. So the “base vehicle” if you will is the bicycle. There are a fair number of bikes on the road, although not nearly as many as in China where they are the predominant vehicle. Bikes here come in three standard varieties: regular two wheels, three wheels for hauling people, and with a cart attached to haul goods. All three types are shown here.

You will note that they can get a tremendous amount piled on the carts. It really is amazing the loads they can haul.

So, the next step up after bikes is motor bikes. You see almost every type of motor bike of scooter on the road; well, I haven’t seen a Harley (sorry Dave Fuhriman). I find two things about the use of motor bikes remarkable. First, as you can see below, women often ride “side-saddle” behind the driver, as in the picture below. Note the driver has a helmet while the woman is protected by a scarf. I had hoped to snap a picture of something you see fairly often: a family using one scooter. I have seen five people on one scooter: a child in front of the driver holding onto the handle bars with his dad (wouldn’t Colvin love that?), the dad, another child wedged between the parents (I guess that would have to be Quincy), the mom riding side-saddle, holding a baby in her arms (there’s Lincoln!).

I’ll pass over the more general category of cars other than to note they are almost uniformly smaller than what we are used to in the United States. Our car, a Honda City (which I have noted in a previous blog is about the size of Civic) is one of the larger cars on the road. The vast majority of cars are built by Tata or Mahindra (two major Indian companies) although Suzuki, Hyundai, Toyota and Honda are also common. There are a few luxury cars but given the road, I am not sure why if you could afford a luxury car you wouldn’t have a Range Rover!

The next broad category is utility vehicles or trucks. Here too as the pictures below show there is a variety of sizes from the small to the very large. I couple of things of note I want to point out: you will note the tail gate of the truck with the instruction to use your dipper (dimmer) or horn to pass. It is customary to do just that to toot your horn or flash your light as you pass on the right. This seems to have started as a polite courtesy and still is most often used that way; “Beep, beep. I am just letting you know I am here and passing so you don’t inadvertently pull in front of me.” However, at times I have noticed that the honks get a bit longer than beeps and more emphatic!

Please also note the men standing in the back of the truck. I don’t think the passenger safety laws here are just a bit looser than we are used to.

The final area about traffic about which I want to traffic is people. During the morning and evening at every major intersection there will be people winding their way between vehicles. Most are vendors such as the two in the pictures below. In addition to auto accessories, I have seen people selling clothes, magazines, ceramic wall hangings, coconut pieces, and water. There are also from time to time beggars. I am glad this doesn’t happen as often in New Delhi as I have seen in other parts of India. Women with babies or little children begging break my heart.

As I said, I can’t truly convey what New Delhi traffic is like. Overall, it is not too bad but I don’t think I will be driving anytime soon. Thank goodness for Mehndi!

Namaste.