What i learned from driving in India
Before i moved to Cyprus six years back, i had been driving motorbikes (or motorcycles or just bikes as they are called in India) and cars for more than 5 years then. This experience proved to be invaluable in being able to drive comfortably in Europe and the US. Driving in India is an enlightening experience, especially for any non-indian who is coming to India for the first time and lands up in any of the crowded metropolitan cities.
As part of the Group writing project currently on at Middle Zone Musings, i decided to pen down whatever i have learnt from my experience of driving in India.
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Indians are way ahead of the rest of the world in nano-technology. USA and Europe might be taking big steps in nanotechnology, but India is already light years ahead. Imagine, in the US, they have six-lane highways where you might find, if you are lucky, vehicles on four, or maybe if you are really lucky, five of the lanes. But, in India, we have single lane roads (ok, we actually don’t have lanes, only roads) where, on a normal day, you will find a lorry, 2 buses, 3 cars, 4 vans,5 autorickshaws, 6 bicycles, 7 motorcycles and a few stray dogs within a range of a dozen square metres. Do you really need more inspiration for nanotechnology?
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Now i know why cars are damn cheap in India as compared to US or Europe. In fact, you can get a new car for under 4000 USD in India and in the last few weeks, many Automobile manufacturers have been announcing sub-2000 USD cars in India. Such a car would be an impossible dream in US, that even sci-fi movie and fantasy movie makers would not dare to project such cheap cars in movies lest the audience dump them for being over fantastical. So, why are cars cheap in India? To understand this, we need to look at cars being sold in the US. Cars are always released in many models, the basic one and the X-one which has many extra features like Bose Audio Systems, Rain Sensing Auto Wipers (or is this on the basic one?), anti-theft mechanism, and the like. So, you expect the X-one to be a lot costlier. In India, a similar X-model would have the following extra “fancy” features: Rear-View mirrors, Seat Belts, Rear Window Wipers, Child Lock and Air bags. The basic model is a car that runs, that’s it. No wonder, they cost so less in India.
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Indians were the first in the world to introduce indicators on cars. The world was used to drivers pointing their hands in the direction they planned to take a turn. It was the same sign used in India too. But, the situation in India was different. Since the cars and other vehicles in India loved each other and travelled a few millimetres away from each other, showing a hand sign was an indication that you wanted your hand amputated. The growing number of hand amputations led the government to fund research and thus they came up with indicator lamps for the cars!
If you commute a lot to work daily and feel stressed out by this, take a vacation in India and drive around the cities. When you go back to your country (unless you are from Thailand!), you will feel as if you are driving in space with the whole highway built just for you. Enjoy!
If you are interested to participate in another group writing project, check out the Friday the 13th Group Writing Project.
Technorati Tags: India, driving in India, cars, traffic
This gave me a good laugh. Great stuff!
I love how everyone has their own very unique take on the same topic for the writing project.
Hey, Rajaram, welcome back to the project! I loved this – it reinforced my resolve to never drive in India! (Actually, I had the same experiences in Sao Paolo, Brazil, too.)
Thanks for participating!
That’s gold – thanks for sharing. Sounds like India and China are working hard to improve and advance the cause of nano-technology! 😉
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Yvonne: thanks! The random acts of kindness which you have written abt in your entry are becoming more and more rare these days!
Bob/Robert: Thanks for dropping by. Your group projects are responsible for many interesting hrs spent reading other’s articles.
themolk: thx for visiting. I can relate a lot to the points mentioned in ur article on travel.
Much of the world wide web is full of sarcasm & mocking of driving on Indian roads. This site http://driving-india.blogspot.com/ has been created with the purpose of providing driver education and training rather than criticism.
At present 17 driver education videos aimed at changing the driving culture on Indian roads are available. To watch the videos, please visit: http://driving-india.blogspot.com/
Please publish / forward this link and help change the driving culture on our roads
The videos cover the following topics:
Video 1: Covers the concept of Blind spots
Video 2: Introduces the principle of Mirrors, Signal and Manoeuvre
Video 3: At red lights, stop behind the stop line
Video 4: At red lights there are no free left turns
Video 5: The Zebra belongs to pedestrians
Video 6: Tyres and Tarmac (rather than bumper to bumper)
Video 7: Merging with the Main road
Video 8: Leaving The Main Road
Video 9: Never Cut Corners
Video 10: Show Courtesy on roads
Video 11: 5 Rules that help deal with Roundabouts
Video 12: Speed limits, stopping distances, tailgating & 2 seconds rule
Video 13: Lane discipline and overtaking
Video 14: Low beam or high beam?
Video 15: Parallel (reverse parking) made easy
Video 16: Give the cyclist the respect of a car
Video 17: Dealing with in-car condensation
Many thanks
Mr.RAJARAM, People are so sarcastic about Indian road and Drivers (Being an Indian even you do that and no wonder BRITISH ruled INDIA with countable no of soldiers ). The basic point in driving is that you should not hit anybody. I think we do that in INDIA (The point I am making here is you can drive the way u want but should not cause any danger to others life. We do that very well in INDIA). I have been driving in Chennai, coimbatore and Tirupur (cities of Tamilnadu) for almost 7 years and the amount of accident that I have seen there is really less. In India you always expect people to make mistakes while driving and but in foreign countries you really do not expect others to make mistakes. If somebody makes any mistake , it will really be terrible. I am driving in UK (where we think it is safe to drive)for almost 2 years and I could see the same amount of accidents here.STOP MAKING FUN OF INDIA…HOPE U CAN UNDERSTAND AND ACT ACCORDINGLY MR.RAJARAM….