Horn, ok, please!

I never feel alone in India, not even when skipping red lights :)  You may wonder what transpired to make a generally law abiding person to break the law. The deafening horn of multiple vehicles:motor bikes, scooties, auto rickshaws, cars, buses colluded to make me a law breaker.

The traffic scenario in all major cities is worsening world over, but in Pune it is doing so by leaps and bounds. I have been away for only 2 years and it seems skipping traffic signals has become a norm. It is not just the ubiquitous and multitudes of two wheelers that skip red lights, PMT (Pune Municipal board) buses do so too!!!

Just to give you an idea of what PMT buses look like here’s a picture

Honking is the unspoken language of everyone on the road. It is used to communicate a variety of emotions: to get you to speed up or to slow down, move to your left, sometimes right, take a pass, to break up a crowd of people who have decided to congregate in the middle of the road to chat up some, scare away the stray cows or dogs ambling away on the road undaunted, among many other emotions. Since it is such a common language, to grasp it entirely one has to supplement its understanding by some supporting observations. In case of two wheel drivers one may have to gauge their body language to guess what their next step maybe,  for PMT bus drivers, look out for their frustration level by how much squealing noise they make with their brakes (a tactic commonly employed to emote by many PMT bus drivers). Having a meek little bell is a big disadvantage for bicyclists who emote in the following way :

Having been sensitized in the USA and UK for the last 5 years where honking is considered disrespectful unless absolutely necessary, my husband refrains from honking here in India as well. It is just a matter of time before he re-learns that honking is not only necessary but mandatory to survive Pune traffic. As for me, I often feel like using Harry Potter’s charm “Silencio”. In Harry Potter lingo,   The Silencing Charm (Silencio) is a charm that renders the victim temporarily mute, working on both beasts and beings. Here though I want to modify the charm to use it on the vehicles and mute them instead.

Driving on the wrong side of the road, stopping anywhere without indication even though the roads are narrow and can easily slow down the ongoing traffic are some other road “mis- etiquettes” that can be very annoying.  If I have to look at it differently though, driving in Pune can be likened to a thrilling video gaming experience, in real life. It has definitely sharpened my reflexes! An American friend of mine who was briefly visiting India had remarked to me “traffic in India is like water, it finds its own way to flow”, a really astute observation!  Nothing can deter the traffic: be it large pot holes, water logging or a bus that has broken down in the middle of the road. There are traffic jams and bottlenecks often but people squeeze in and make room by going over the pavement, going over to the wrong side of the road, and not to leave out the most lethal weapon: persistent honking till the person in front gets annoyed and somehow makes room for you to pass, many a times by skipping the traffic light!

Its been 2 months since I wrote this blog and I would like to update some developments in dealing with persistent honking. I now have a helmet!! People use helmet to save their precious heads, my objective though is to use it for mitigation of noise :) Also having a headphone with music playing ( in one ear) helps me enjoy music while I ride. This is serving me quite well, I am glad to say that I am now fully adjusted in :)
Steps in getting ready for a ride:
Step 1: switch on the music and plug your ear phone in one ear

Step 2: Wrap your scarp around your head, taking care the head phone is still in place

Step 3: Wear your helmet on top of all this

Now we are set to take on the noisy traffic with an elan ;)