Its been 8 months since I returned to my dear homeland, India, after a two and a half year stint in San Francisco. Although I spent 24 years of my life in India, those two and a half years changed me a lot in different ways, some good and maybe some bad. In the beginning, after my return, I was confused for a few days about which side to look first before crossing the road. However, I got used to this quickly. Whenever my family visited San Francisco, the first comment which my father always made after a few days living there, was that the transport system in San Francisco is exceptional. What with the MUNI trains traversing right in the middle of the road, alongside the usual traffic, without any hitches and the underground BART system. There were also the cute little cable cars, which were one of the many tourist attractions. I never ever felt the need for a car during my stay in San Francisco. However the transport facilities wasn't the only good thing about San Francisco, but it was also the systematic driving of the people. Among the few times that I did travel by car in this city( the occasional Uber I took, when I was running late), I remember traveling from San Francisco to Oakland, in the early morning rush hour. There was a stream of traffic going from Oakland to San Francisco, no doubt comprised mostly of office goers. But you could see that there was no lane cutting, no honking and no time consuming traffic jams. Everyone was going systematically, keeping a safe distance from each other.
The point of this extra long prelude was to highlight the difference between the driving, that I noticed in San Francisco, and the driving in Pune.
Here is my attempt at a light-hearted take on the driving skills of of our very own Pune drivers. Though I have been riding my moped in Pune city right since I was 16 years old, the driving in Pune never fails to surprise me. I have categorized the drivers in Pune, and in India in general in various categories.
The slinkers:
The first category of drivers is the slinkers. Here I am, riding my moped on the edge of the road, not harming anyone, when suddenly I realize there is a vehicle (whether a four wheeler or a two wheeler), an inch away from me, trying to overtake me. How do I realize this? It is because I hear a deafening honk in my ears, right before someone zooms past me. I call these drivers the slinkers, because one is never aware of their presence until they break your eardrums with their car or bike horns before zooming past you like the roadrunner. I may have commented to my mom umpteen number of times, that if I don't die of anything else, one day I will surely die of a heart attack by these mini shocks I get while I drive. You could also call these drivers the Jacks in the boxes, if that suits you better.
The musical donkeys:
This may be the most irritating category of drivers I have come across. Though they don't make you jump from your seats, they have a weird way of announcing their presence on the road. They will start honking in a musical tune right from the beginning of their journey to the very end of it. I have tried to gauge the reason for this, and the only reason I can think of is that maybe these people never like to waste any of their resources. For them, if your vehicle has a horn, you are supposed to make maximum use of it, even when it is totally unnecessary to do so. Because why waste anything!
The hand of God:
Although I wished to write about the "driving skills" of people in India, I wouldn't want to miss out on the opportunity to make a mention of the pedestrians here. On the rare occasion that everyone is adhering to the red traffic signal on a crosswalk, there comes a pedestrian. He or she will wait out the entire duration of the walk signal and start crossing the road when it is time for the vehicles to get a green signal to go. Once the vehicles start moving, this concerned pedestrian will show his hand to all the revving engines and make them stop so that he or she can cross the road. This hand of God is supposed to be the solution to all road crossing problems.
The resident tourists:
Imagine you are driving to work on a Monday morning. Suddenly, the car in front of you stops in the middle of the road. You try to overtake the car. The car suddenly starts moving. You let it move forward. Again it stops. This happens a few more times. Irked, you manage to overtake the car, and when you look to see what the problem is, you find the driver looking here and there, trying to find a location. My simple question to these people is, why don't you stop by the side of the road and ask someone the address to the location, or just check the directions on your GPS? To make things worse, you manage to overtake the car and you continue with your journey. In a minute or two, you hear frantic honking from behind. You look in your rear view mirror, and lo and behold, it is the same car. You let it pass, because it is obvious that the driver has found his destination and is in a hurry to reach there. I call these the resident tourists because till the time they are finding it difficult to find their destination, they act like tourists and care two hoots about the inconvenience caused to others. But as soon as they find their destination, they become they get the confidence of the original inhabitants of the city.
The King of the Road:
In order to explain this category better, I have to narrate a short incident. The other day, my father was walking on the footpath down the road. Suddenly, he hears frantic honking. He turns around to see the cause of the commotion. He sees a bike rider charging towards him, down the footpath. Let me emphasize that, "driving down the footpath". He passes my father, and then he makes a comment, "Kay baapacha rasta ahe ka? (Does the footpath belong to your father?)." So basically he meant to say, that my father was not supposed to walk on the footpath, because he was driving on it. In short, he is the king of the road, love him or hate him, he owns the road.
The "phonies"
I understand that the new age people cannot live with their cell phones even for a moment, me included. However, I still value my life more than my cell phone. You often come across moped riders, with one hand on the accelerator, and the other holding their cell phone to their ears, talking nineteen to the dozen, at the same time riding extra slowly in the middle of the road. Nothing works on these people, not honking for sure. In the rare instance that you manage to overtake them, your triumph is short lived. They will finish their phone call eventually and then they will find you and honk at you till you surrender and let them pass. Then even Gandalf will have to let them pass.
The tourist car drivers cum rickshaw drivers:
A special mention must be made about the tourist car drivers. They are basically just rickshaw drivers who got promoted to tourist car drivers. I guess they adhere to the principle, " Never forget your roots" to the T. So they continue driving cars, as if they are rickshaws, though more rashly. They don't care about their vehicles, since obviously the cars don't belong to them, but they make it a point to let you know that they don't care about your vehicle either. So, if you value your car, run, run from them!
I am sure everyone who lives in Pune or has ever lived here, or for that mater lived in any big city in India has come across many of these categories of drivers. There may be some other categories too, which I may not have experienced. But living in India, you get used to making it successfully through the everyday traffic. Unknowingly, we may also be an esteemed member of one of these category of drivers. I for one know that I am a member of the "Roadragers" club, as far as driving is concerned. Like it or not, we Indians need to make drastic changes in our driving sense and general attitude towards abiding by the traffic rules. With this I end my tirade and wish everyone a safe journey home today!
The point of this extra long prelude was to highlight the difference between the driving, that I noticed in San Francisco, and the driving in Pune.
Here is my attempt at a light-hearted take on the driving skills of of our very own Pune drivers. Though I have been riding my moped in Pune city right since I was 16 years old, the driving in Pune never fails to surprise me. I have categorized the drivers in Pune, and in India in general in various categories.
The slinkers:
The first category of drivers is the slinkers. Here I am, riding my moped on the edge of the road, not harming anyone, when suddenly I realize there is a vehicle (whether a four wheeler or a two wheeler), an inch away from me, trying to overtake me. How do I realize this? It is because I hear a deafening honk in my ears, right before someone zooms past me. I call these drivers the slinkers, because one is never aware of their presence until they break your eardrums with their car or bike horns before zooming past you like the roadrunner. I may have commented to my mom umpteen number of times, that if I don't die of anything else, one day I will surely die of a heart attack by these mini shocks I get while I drive. You could also call these drivers the Jacks in the boxes, if that suits you better.
The musical donkeys:
This may be the most irritating category of drivers I have come across. Though they don't make you jump from your seats, they have a weird way of announcing their presence on the road. They will start honking in a musical tune right from the beginning of their journey to the very end of it. I have tried to gauge the reason for this, and the only reason I can think of is that maybe these people never like to waste any of their resources. For them, if your vehicle has a horn, you are supposed to make maximum use of it, even when it is totally unnecessary to do so. Because why waste anything!
The hand of God:
Although I wished to write about the "driving skills" of people in India, I wouldn't want to miss out on the opportunity to make a mention of the pedestrians here. On the rare occasion that everyone is adhering to the red traffic signal on a crosswalk, there comes a pedestrian. He or she will wait out the entire duration of the walk signal and start crossing the road when it is time for the vehicles to get a green signal to go. Once the vehicles start moving, this concerned pedestrian will show his hand to all the revving engines and make them stop so that he or she can cross the road. This hand of God is supposed to be the solution to all road crossing problems.
The resident tourists:
Imagine you are driving to work on a Monday morning. Suddenly, the car in front of you stops in the middle of the road. You try to overtake the car. The car suddenly starts moving. You let it move forward. Again it stops. This happens a few more times. Irked, you manage to overtake the car, and when you look to see what the problem is, you find the driver looking here and there, trying to find a location. My simple question to these people is, why don't you stop by the side of the road and ask someone the address to the location, or just check the directions on your GPS? To make things worse, you manage to overtake the car and you continue with your journey. In a minute or two, you hear frantic honking from behind. You look in your rear view mirror, and lo and behold, it is the same car. You let it pass, because it is obvious that the driver has found his destination and is in a hurry to reach there. I call these the resident tourists because till the time they are finding it difficult to find their destination, they act like tourists and care two hoots about the inconvenience caused to others. But as soon as they find their destination, they become they get the confidence of the original inhabitants of the city.
The King of the Road:
In order to explain this category better, I have to narrate a short incident. The other day, my father was walking on the footpath down the road. Suddenly, he hears frantic honking. He turns around to see the cause of the commotion. He sees a bike rider charging towards him, down the footpath. Let me emphasize that, "driving down the footpath". He passes my father, and then he makes a comment, "Kay baapacha rasta ahe ka? (Does the footpath belong to your father?)." So basically he meant to say, that my father was not supposed to walk on the footpath, because he was driving on it. In short, he is the king of the road, love him or hate him, he owns the road.
The "phonies"
I understand that the new age people cannot live with their cell phones even for a moment, me included. However, I still value my life more than my cell phone. You often come across moped riders, with one hand on the accelerator, and the other holding their cell phone to their ears, talking nineteen to the dozen, at the same time riding extra slowly in the middle of the road. Nothing works on these people, not honking for sure. In the rare instance that you manage to overtake them, your triumph is short lived. They will finish their phone call eventually and then they will find you and honk at you till you surrender and let them pass. Then even Gandalf will have to let them pass.
The tourist car drivers cum rickshaw drivers:
A special mention must be made about the tourist car drivers. They are basically just rickshaw drivers who got promoted to tourist car drivers. I guess they adhere to the principle, " Never forget your roots" to the T. So they continue driving cars, as if they are rickshaws, though more rashly. They don't care about their vehicles, since obviously the cars don't belong to them, but they make it a point to let you know that they don't care about your vehicle either. So, if you value your car, run, run from them!
I am sure everyone who lives in Pune or has ever lived here, or for that mater lived in any big city in India has come across many of these categories of drivers. There may be some other categories too, which I may not have experienced. But living in India, you get used to making it successfully through the everyday traffic. Unknowingly, we may also be an esteemed member of one of these category of drivers. I for one know that I am a member of the "Roadragers" club, as far as driving is concerned. Like it or not, we Indians need to make drastic changes in our driving sense and general attitude towards abiding by the traffic rules. With this I end my tirade and wish everyone a safe journey home today!
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