Mumbai – January 17th, 2008

 

Having my name on a little paper sign at the greeting section of the airport was a first for me today.  It was kind of funny to see all the little holiday company signs and then in the midst of it all Nimisha’s Uncle Manu and his family’s sign-carrying driver. 

Overall we’ve eased into this whole backpacking thing in slow steps.  First stopping in Singapore before India, then getting picked up & receiving total guest treatment with Nimisha’s relatives.  Pretty sweet.  Anyway, back to the whole being picked up thing -

The driver drove us back to ‘Uncle Manu’ and his family’s apartment.  This requires note of it’s own because as much as one reads about the roads in India I realized today that it really has to be experienced in order to believe it.  I think the best way to describe it would be that driving in India is like playing one big game of ‘Chicken’.  The players include all vehicles, from personal cars through rickshaws & even the odd double-decker bus.  I should mention that pedestrians play a key role as well.  The pedestrians role is to consistently try to cross in the middle of 4 to 8 lanes of traffic, without waiting for a break in vehicle flow.  As for said vehicles, there are no rules.  Lanes are not meant to be followed & if there happens to be a traffic light at a major intersection it is meant to be ignored. 

The goal is to drive as quickly as possible, letting the car/rickshaw/pedestrian in front of you swerve out of your way, unless you chicken out in which case you swerve.  Swerving abruptly is also the way to pass anyone who should happen to be in your way, particularly the rickshaws, which careen madly in & out as if they were motorcycle-sized rather than simply 2/3 the width of a typical small car.  What are known as rickshaws here are not the wood/canvas structure carried by people (that I’d formerly imagined & I think existed in older times), but rather a small bug-like 3-wheeled car, painted black, which can only fit 3 people.  They’re kind of cute in their way, until the little thing that was beetling about on it’s own suddenly picks up speed and comes straight at you. 

Uncle Manu’s driver was quite adept at driving through this ridiculous mix of humans & people.  Considering at any moment one of the eight cars piled cheek by jowl in the 3-4 lane highway could (& often did) reverse & pull a u-turn, and that bumper to bumper here literally means the car bumpers are touching & your neighbour’s side-mirror is hitting your passenger window, while your passenger door is an inch from being scratched by the rear bumper of a truck, this was quite a feat.  He was adept at using the car horn as well.  It appears to be important while driving here to lean on the horn periodically, purely to acknowledge - to yourself only - your participation in the affair (no one around you will pay the least attention). 

While I caught others performing the U-turn, wrong lane & backing up on one way street maneuvers, I was feeling a little jetlagged & unfortunately slept through the double whammy Evy tells me our driver pulled – mis-attempted U-turn, then backing into oncoming traffic.