Today happens to be my fourth day back in India after my first trip to Europe. I was driving from my office to pick up my wife. There is a very chaotic crossing just in front of the gate of the SEZ where my office is. Its been like that forever -- a typical UP traffic intersection where streams of vehicles of all kinds try to keep flowing in all directions and everyone gets stuck. It only works relatively smoothly when (rarely) a policeman is present, or someone acts like one and untangles the jam. A few months ago the authorities had installed an extra traffic light at the signal, which nobody cares about, specially in the evening.
I knew all of this but my instincts had become a bit rusty after seeing highly polite and disciplined traffic for 16 days in Europe. So today, when I was going towards the intersection I saw that the light was red and a lot of vehicles had already gone ahead. There were 30 seconds left for the green. I stopped, and allowed the perpendicular traffic to pass. When my light turned green and I started to try going forward inch by inch (along with everyone beside and behind me) -- because the vehicles going from right to left were not stopping at all. There were a bunch of motorcyclists on my right and they were going trying to go through the gaps. One of them asked me to wait as he wanted to go to my left. I promptly said something to the tune of 'what crap are you saying' (because if he needed to go left he could always do that even after I had gone). The guy retorted with something like 'shall I give you a slap or what' and crossed over in front of me, blocking my way and looked at me triumphantly. I waved my hand and motioned him to go and he left, allowing me to proceed.
As I went on I became pretty angry at first, and felt like killing him. But then in a few minutes the reality dawned -- I had not yet adjusted to Indians. I am not a hooligan and can never be one -- so I'll always have to give way to hooligans. And hooligans are everywhere -- maybe the density is higher in the region where I stay (NCR) but no place in the world can claim to be free of them.
A month ago I would not have tried to obey the traffic light in a junction where I know nothing ever works, and I definitely would not have resisted the motorcyclist from having his way. I am actually clever enough to happily survive here as I have done for years. It is just that I need a few more days of adjustment!
I knew all of this but my instincts had become a bit rusty after seeing highly polite and disciplined traffic for 16 days in Europe. So today, when I was going towards the intersection I saw that the light was red and a lot of vehicles had already gone ahead. There were 30 seconds left for the green. I stopped, and allowed the perpendicular traffic to pass. When my light turned green and I started to try going forward inch by inch (along with everyone beside and behind me) -- because the vehicles going from right to left were not stopping at all. There were a bunch of motorcyclists on my right and they were going trying to go through the gaps. One of them asked me to wait as he wanted to go to my left. I promptly said something to the tune of 'what crap are you saying' (because if he needed to go left he could always do that even after I had gone). The guy retorted with something like 'shall I give you a slap or what' and crossed over in front of me, blocking my way and looked at me triumphantly. I waved my hand and motioned him to go and he left, allowing me to proceed.
As I went on I became pretty angry at first, and felt like killing him. But then in a few minutes the reality dawned -- I had not yet adjusted to Indians. I am not a hooligan and can never be one -- so I'll always have to give way to hooligans. And hooligans are everywhere -- maybe the density is higher in the region where I stay (NCR) but no place in the world can claim to be free of them.
A month ago I would not have tried to obey the traffic light in a junction where I know nothing ever works, and I definitely would not have resisted the motorcyclist from having his way. I am actually clever enough to happily survive here as I have done for years. It is just that I need a few more days of adjustment!
Welcome back! I feel the same way every time I come back from a disciplined traffic.. If you want a crash course, take the Delhi metro to Rajiv Chowk and try driving from Moolchand to Noida
ReplyDeleteNo thanks! The chaos around me taught me fast enough
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