What i learned from driving in India

Before i moved to Cyprus six years back, i had been driving motorbikes (or motorcycles or just bikes as they are called in India) and cars for more than 5 years then. This experience proved to be invaluable in being able to drive comfortably in Europe and the US. Driving in India is an enlightening experience, especially for any non-indian who is coming to India for the first time and lands up in any of the crowded metropolitan cities.

As part of the Group writing project currently on at Middle Zone Musings, i decided to pen down whatever i have learnt from my experience of driving in India.

• Indians are way ahead of the rest of the world in nano-technology. USA and Europe might be taking big steps in nanotechnology, but India is already light years ahead. Imagine, in the US, they have six-lane highways where you might find, if you are lucky, vehicles on four, or maybe if you are really lucky, five of the lanes. But, in India, we have single lane roads (ok, we actually don't have lanes, only roads) where, on a normal day, you will find a lorry, 2 buses, 3 cars, 4 vans,5 autorickshaws, 6 bicycles, 7 motorcycles and a few stray dogs within a range of a dozen square metres. Do you really need more inspiration for nanotechnology?
• Now i know why cars are damn cheap in India as compared to US or Europe. In fact, you can get a new car for under 4000 USD in India and in the last few weeks, many Automobile manufacturers have been announcing sub-2000 USD cars in India. Such a car would be an impossible dream in US, that even sci-fi movie and fantasy movie makers would not dare to project such cheap cars in movies lest the audience dump them for being over fantastical. So, why are cars cheap in India? To understand this, we need to look at cars being sold in the US. Cars are always released in many models, the basic one and the X-one which has many extra features like Bose Audio Systems, Rain Sensing Auto Wipers (or is this on the basic one?), anti-theft mechanism, and the like. So, you expect the X-one to be a lot costlier. In India, a similar X-model would have the following extra "fancy" features: Rear-View mirrors, Seat Belts, Rear Window Wipers, Child Lock and Air bags. The basic model is a car that runs, that's it. No wonder, they cost so less in India.
• Indians were the first in the world to introduce indicators on cars. The world was used to drivers pointing their hands in the direction they planned to take a turn. It was the same sign used in India too. But, the situation in India was different. Since the cars and other vehicles in India loved each other and travelled a few millimetres away from each other, showing a hand sign was an indication that you wanted your hand amputated. The growing number of hand amputations led the government to fund research and thus they came up with indicator lamps for the cars!

If you commute a lot to work daily and feel stressed out by this, take a vacation in India and drive around the cities. When you go back to your country (unless you are from Thailand!), you will feel as if you are driving in space with the whole highway built just for you. Enjoy!

If you are interested to participate in another group writing project, check out the Friday the 13th Group Writing Project.

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