Musings and snapshots from life in India

I suppose that seeing the word "terror" on a newspaper is never funny, but this time I laughed:

Getting around in Delhi is a challenge. From a distance, you see order: lanes are painted white, traffic lights are in place, and there are even police officers directing traffic. Looking more closely, it’s a whole new world. You think that this is a two-lane road? Guess again. Depending on the combination of cars, auto-rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, and mopeds/motorbikes, you could have any combination of three to eight vehicles in a row. The traffic lights? Really unnecessary, because as long as you honk your horn while crossing the intersection, they can be ignored. And the traffic police – I usually see them wave their hand or blow the whistle when things get really bad.

The most interesting phenomenon can be observed when trying to make a right turn (thus crossing the other lane of traffic). If there is no traffic light or policeman, you must make this turn at your own judgment. At times, there could be a backup on the road that you are trying to turn onto – but no worries, we will make the turn anyway, and block the entire other opposing lane of traffic, even though we could already see that our path is blocked, and thus predict this developing gridlock. Once in this situation, there’s only one thing left to do which will really not move traffic at all, but is done nonetheless: honk the horn, because of course you are not in fault for making a turn towards a blocked intersection, the people in front of you should move!

This traffic mentality is bizarre. It’s an every-vehicle-for-himself mentality, leading to everybody getting nowhere at once. Everyone inches and squeezes as further ahead they can go, irrespective of any other vehicle on the road.

This traffic can drive me crazy, especially with the honking. That’s why I was relieved to find out that I could start using the Delhi metro for my work commute to East Delhi. The stations are comfortably ventilated, and the fare is cheap. Getting onto the platform, there are metal fences on the edge, preventing people from falling on the tracks. There are gaps in these fences where the train opens its doors. People queue up along the edge of these fences to make sure that they don’t block the doorway, as noted on the pavement. And here comes our ultramodern train, complete with A/C. Sounds nice, right?

Once the train pulls up, forget the line. They collapse on the doors before they open. The people trying to get off the train often cannot , due to the overpowering rush of people trying to get on a usually already overpacked train. No worries, because sometimes if you are lucky, by your door may be a delhi metro worker who pulls people off the train. This person is an unmoving rock in a sea of people moving towards the door. Like moses, he parts the crowd and reaches into the train for his quarry that is desperately trying to reach the platform. For those people who make it onto the train, check out how packed they are.

These transportation issues led me to find other means of getting around delhi.