Have you ever stood in the way of charging bulls? Imagine the intensity of those charging bulls gunning for you when you are in their way while you read the rest of this post.
I used to live in the US and now I have moved to India. My experiences are based on the comparison and opinion derived out of incidents that have taken place. The topic I have chosen this evening is Driving in India (by Indians). The topic doesn't come out of passion but out of frustration. I could probably write a thesis on it but I'll stick to a post for today.
Some background on driving rules(if any) in India. People drive on the left side of the road unlike the right side as many other countries around the world. There is no lane system in India and hence not many rules governing the movement of vehicular traffic.
Vehicles are free to go anywhere on the road as long as they stick to the left side of the road (compared to the oncoming traffic). If there is no median on the road, people take liberty of occupying three fourths of the road for uni-direction. People cross the road when and how they want. If a mishap takes place, there is no way one can judge whose mistake it was as there are no rules to identify the mistakes of a driver. So, in short, every driver is right however he/she is driving.
If you are an ardent follower of motor races like F1 or Nascar, you know how the cars take off when they see the green light. People in India are big followers of F1. They like to emulate it on the roads. When they are stopped at a stop light, they wait for it to turn green. Once the light turns green, they are off zooming on the roads where there are no speed limits.
I write this in grief that the roads stay the same although the common sense of an average Indian driver reduces on a daily basis as the number of vehicles that ply increase rapidly. If you are planning on landing in India for a longish visit, don't plan on driving; hire a driver who knows how not to get in a wreck. God save Indian drivers.
