A Winter in India

Riding in an autorickshaw is a hoot!! I remember riding on my motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic lanes and really pissing off the motorists who followed the rules of the road. Those bursts of temporary insanity make great memories (if you survive). Well, in Delhi the main source of ‘vehicle for hire’ is the autorickshaw, and every driver of an autorickshaw is trying to maximize his number of survival memories. The minute-by- minute measure of an autorick driver’s bravado is how tightly he can eclipse the motion of his fellow companion on the roads of Delhi.

The above image was taken while stopped at a red light on Bahadur Shah Zafar Road. There are definitely lane lines painted on all the major roads. But like the pirate captain in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie responded when asked about a seeming violation of the Pirate Code, “Rules? they’re only guidelines, arrgh !” Now really study this picture. The inside of my autorick is in the foreground, but so isn’t the wheel of the bus and the back of the next autorick. There just doesn’t seem to be any background!! Notice the number of lug nuts on the bus wheel, seven is almost eight!

Now we North Americans know that the lane width is greater than the width of even our Lincoln Navigator or Hummer. That brings us great comfort because of our innate sense of personal space, which I think translates to feelings of security. Here there is very little personal space in a country of one billion people. On the roads here drivers don’t require much comfort space, in fact, when traffic stops grudgingly at a stop light it must give them discomfort to see space not filled. Three full size vehicles will fit in two lanes, autoricks can cram many more, and motorscooters and motorcycles fill and weave amongst all the skinny spaces until every square foot is filled across the entire possible travel surface. When the light turns green the free-for-all begins to untangle.