Blog

As this week has progressed, there have been a number of occasions when my companions and I have been tempted to seek out a mobile computer device so that we could write immediate reports about some of the successes, failures and challenges we are encountering.

In short, each one of these experiences generates a response from someone, and it usually gets vocalized as 'Blog!'.

Take for example the trip from the hotel to the banquet last night. You may have noticed that I've been writing lots about traffic these days, but in truth that's because we tend to spend inordinate amounts of time in various transportation modes, getting from point A to point B. The sheer volume of traffic makes for all kinds of experiences, especially for those of us who are used to a (shall we say) slower pace of life.

So, we were en route last evening and found ourselves in a jam - a traffic jam. I've described before, the unwritten rules about traffic patterns here in Delhi, so imagine a road that has four lanes painted, and which is actually handling six lanes of cars, vans and trucks. Now add another supposed lane that's dedicated to bycycles and pedestrians, take away the sunlight and you have a good idea about what we were facing at about 7:00 pm (local time) last night.

Then the traffic stopped. Reason: a vehicle which resembled a midget tanker had somehow been stalled in one of the inner lanes, and had to be moved. Normally, four people seem to materialize whenever a car is disabled in this fashion, and quickly move it over to the side of the road (which in itself is no mean feat of ingenuity), but a larger vehicle is more difficult to maneuver so it needed to stay put for the moment.

Before long, there was an emergency vehicle (perhaps Delhi's answer to the local police force) which had somehow managed to make its way up to the scene of the problem. Trying to move traffic around this obstacle is not easy because cars don't move quickly by reason of the volume around them, and because there just is no room to move in general. Add to the complication, the fact that there were two other cars which had somehow managed to park themselves perpendicular to the rest of the traffic (how this happened is still a mystery), and needed to somehow make their way into the constant stream of metal, glass and humanity. This of course involved an engineering feat which included human beings directing traffic, cars, trucks and other vehicles all somehow managing to give way, and more than the usual amount of car horns blaring.

Car horns seem to be used here a whole lot more than they are back home, and particularly in this city, they are used in a much more agressive manner. It's almost as though the person sitting in the car wants to scream at everyone around him, so he lays on the horn and just keeps moving.

I wonder whether the abundance of usage of the car horn somehow accounts for the apparently decreased incidence of road rage (!?)

Eventually (I think it took the better part of forty minutes) we managed to be set free from the traffic disturbance. I'm still not sure whether the culprit (that miniature tanker or whatever it was) has yet been moved out of harm's way, but we did get to our destination (and back home afterward) without any other such disturbance. Another day well lived.

We've been told that although Delhi is the largest city in India, if we consider the outlying areas, it surrenders this honour to Bombay, and if the ultimate in a fast-paced life is your speed, then look to Calcutta for the fix of your life.