Life on the Road in India

I’m actually starting to understand the driving and traffic.  It’s just a completely different approach to the road, the vehicles and the activity of moving along the road.  We, in America, approach driving with a somber formality.  We fuss over the wax job of our cars, watch for radar traps in rural areas and – even if some of us might scoot through a red light now and then, we follow the traffic laws.  Lane lines are sacrosanct.   Passengers and surrounding vehicles will actually ridicule a driver for moving out of their lane.  We also adhere to the guidelines inherent in the structure of the car.  Intended for two people, with two seatbelts, that’s who we will put there.  Every once in a while we might cram one extra person.  But not if it is someone else’s kid!  Here in India, it just isn’t like that.  The road is a road.  It is a flat smooth place along which to walk or ride.   It may actually be more like a river, with a natural yet relentless flow. There is nothing formal about how you move down the road.  You walk, you cycle, you power your two wheeler or you cram into a taxi if there is enough place for your foot to find purchase.  Then everyone moves.  It took me a little while to recognize the game in it – it’s a match.  It’s a bit competitive, yes, but it is a team sport.  Everyone is trying to get somewhere and everyone wants that to work out for everyone else.  So there are these rules – and of course there is the hierarchy of vehicles, animals, people.  It is actually starting to make sense. (Have I been in India too long?)