Beep Beep

Have just spent the last week in India visiting my friend Sam. Hats off to her for committing to be there for a year. I found one week exhausting enough! To say I have been in India is really overstating it. I have been to two cities in one region of the southern half of India. What that taught me was basically how huge and diverse India is and I think you would possibly need many years to say that you've 'seen India'. I can understand why people go back again and again. It can be a hard place though. In the city of Chennai the traffic is horrendous. I just kept thinking 'my Dad would HATE this!' The one road rule is that there are no road rules. One Indian woman said to me that Indian drivers are the most skillful in the world and that if you can drive in India you can drive anywhere. Frankly I'd be scared to attempt driving in India. But traffic is the order of the day in Chennai and EVERYONE uses their horns ALL THE TIME!! Mind you for al the craziness there seemed to be some order to it and people actually got where they needed to go. In fact they did so in some amazing ways. People seem to be quite skilled, for example, at riding a motorbike whilst talking on their mobile phone or even text messaging. Sam and my favorite moment was when it rained and we witnessed many people riding bikes and motorbikes while at the same time holding an umbrella to keep the rain off. The women seem to be able to elegantly ride side saddle on the backs of motorbikes in Saris. It is not uncommon to see three or four people on a single bike. I watched with horror as a father rode his motorbike with his THREE children balancing effortlessly in various positions (none of them wearing helmets!) They even posed for a photo for us. Our main means of transport during the week was the 'Auto-rickshaw'. This is a sort of 3 wheeled motorbike with a little covered bench seat at the back - just big enough for two passengers, but often chauffering more than that. By the end of the week I had decided that the way to deal with traffic in India is simply to see it as part of the fun, sit back and enjoy the ride!