Mobility in Bangalore

On Monday night, we were assigned our car, “Peanut,” and our driver, Lokesh. Our car is a brand new Honda City (think smaller than a Civic) and nice, but we couldn’t help but make a quick comparison to Ricky, the beautiful Pathfinder that we’d just “sold” (given) back to the dealer on the 15^th. It’s great to have a car now, but is definitely going to be a change going from two cars to one that we can’t drive without help! (Wade did drive it around the block of our silent-street, gated community just to prove he could move it, but I don’ think this will help us outside these walls.) Driving in Bangalore is definitely different so even though it’s been done on every other blog I’ve seen, I’ll take a stab too.

First, I know you’re laughing mom that we would name our car even here, but hey, it’s tradition. And Peanut is a good name. Wade likes it because it gets good gas mileage and has a manual transmission. Lokesh took care of the traditional details on the India end, with a ritual called puja, a blessing typically done as soon as possible after a purchase (but only on auspicious days). We weren’t able to attend, but here is a photo of the car post-puja. Lokesh also installed a small Ganesha (god for good luck), and some air freshener. I’m glad for this attention to detail, because really, a little luck can’t hurt when you’re driving around here.

It really lives up to expectations. It’s crazy. The sheer volume of traffic isn’t even the start of it (although that is incredible). There really are no lanes, and the roads clearly aren’t just for cars. We’re one of the largest contraptions on the road in our Peanut. There are tons of motorcycles, auto-rickshaws (the three wheel motor carts), bicycles, pedestrians, cows, tractors, some buses, some trucks and an occasional policeman, directing/adding to the madness by trying to stop traffic, which results in pole-position stye jockeying for the front of the line. They do generally drive on the left, unless that is full, in which case the right is also an option. Lokesh keeps the mirrors folded in so that they don’t get hit, and tells me that if someone is coming, they will honk – no need for mirrors. The commute really does help one reflect on faith and physics.

Back to the honk, at night sometimes substituted by the bright light-flash…this is used (I think) to say hello, greetings fellow-traveler, move it *@^hole, I’m not stopping for you and occasionally just to fill in, for seemingly random effect. Honking and physics are also separate… clearly you can honk and run around a pedestrian or stray cyclist. But they won’t necessarily move, or acknowledge the honk, or laws of physics. Same for us on the other end, we travel past the airport fueling station. And we are not afraid to honk at the (presumably full) fuel tanker that looks to have been built and last serviced in 1962. I’m not sure what this is “saying” to the truck. I think it’s just a tribute to democracy. Or a really stupid game of chicken.

Actually by Indian standards, Lokesh is a very conservative driver. He occasionally stops for a pedestrian, uses his signals, and almost always slows down on the speed bumps or really rough roads. I will try to take some pictures of the “road” we use to drive to work. It’s indescribable – rough, off-road, should only be one lane but isn’t… it doesn’t tell you what a few pictures will. Our camera is out of battery though – hopefully our shipment will arrive soon. Many more pictures to come.