Traffic

One cannot report on India without remarking on the traffic. After observing what can only be noted as a 'phenomena' I think I have got it figured out.

If you ever look in a fish bowl or into a clear piece of the ocean, or even behind my boat when I am feeding them, you never see a fish wreck. They can move around, with some swimming in 'schools' and others swimming independently, but they generally don't wreck. (I have created a couple of duck-fish collisions by feeding them concurrently behind the boat, but afterwards I felt that I had perverted nature). They have an extraordinary peripheral vision, and no doubt emit some kind of audible-to-fish signal. (Yes, I have been watching a bit too much Animal Channel and Discovery in Afghanistan. And dude, the Wildebeest migration each year is incredible—between the lions and crocodiles, it is amazing they make it. But I digress…)

So it is with the traffic in India. Most vehicles (bikes, cars, 3-wheelers, hand carts, ox carts, motorcycles/scooters, trucks, busses, and cows) don't have rear view mirrors, and those that do don't know what they are for. So the lead guy is in charge, and all else must follow. It is truly an organic environment, with everyone keying off the other guy. I am convinced that Indians have extraordinary peripheral vision, which allows them to see at least 270 degrees around them.

Of course, fish don't have to deal with intersections, so with no experience in our evolutionary chain from which to draw, Indians struggle to make up the rules. There, it seems that Darwin does apply his unique theories, for the biggest guy wins. Trucks and busses muscle through, then cars, 3-wheelers, motorcycles, bikes, and pedestrians/animals/carts. Except cows. They are trump, and get to go first. We gotta get along with the cows. But the whole intersection thing is not working particularly well, and my observation is that traffic signals have been only of marginal help, as they seem to be the intervention of a more structured western mind into the free-flowing eastern mentality.

While the Indian mind can certainly be 'free-flowing,' their traffic certainly isn't. There, you just go with the flow—or the lack thereof.