Living on the Edge in India

Driving in Delhi
I didn't take this pic

Namaste,

This week I'm blogging from the lovely country of India, where I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Delhi.  Sorry for the delay in posting, but you will understand once you've read this week's entry. Now, many of you have read my blogs about Nigeria and the drama which ensued during my stay.

Well, that was nothing compared to what I've encountered while visiting India! During my stay, there was a terrorist attack, earthquake, flooding and multiple near death experiences just driving down the roads. I will try to recount my experience in two blogs, but there's so much to say I may need an additional entry.

I arrived in Delhi on Sunday, September 4, 2011 with my trusted employee, Kangai (she has given me permission to name her in the blog). We were both excited to be in India because we were going get a little sightseeing done during our visit. The plan was to take Monday off for a day trip to the Taj Mahal and then go to the office on Tuesday. We flew from Nairobi to Dubai and then from Dubai to Delhi. The first thing we recognized when we arrived in Delhi was the heat and humidity. You see, Nairobi's weather is almost perfect, so I've been spoiled by the weather since I've been there.

When we arrived at the airport, we got through customs without incident. Our luggage also came fairly quickly. There were signs that instructed you not to give bribes to people claiming to be customs agents. I wondered if that meant you should give bribes to those who actually were agents. LOL. Luckily we didn't have any issues. The drama started when we exited the airport looking for our ride to the Leela Hotel. No one was there looking for us. SMH. I had such high hopes for a drama free trip.

Once we realized there were no signs with our names on it, we attempted to reenter the airport to go call the hotel. Well, that was not allowed. Apparently, once you exit arrivals you can't reenter the airport and departures were a Jericho mile away. We were not amused, but as soon as my hope was about to fade, a young man standing at the information desk offered to help. Now once he heard our story and that the Leela Hotel was suppose to pick us up, he said to wait right here and he would be back. Now the skeptical American in me said, yeah right. He disappeared up the huge ramp heading towards departures. I had no desire to follow, this time I would just trust. It was so hot and humid that we had to sit down. We were not use to this kind of weather.

As we were about to lose hope, three impeccably dressed men came towards us and asked if we were waiting for a ride to the Leela. They weren't with the guy who scurried off to find help, but they found us anyway. I would realize later that this wasn't such an amazing feat because there were no other African women with braids in their hair in the whole airport! They asked us our names and how long had we been waiting. We complied with their request and told them we had been waiting for almost 45 minutes. They were very apologetic, took our bags and escorted us to a waiting BMW. I was feeling better already! :-) Once we were settled in the car, we were given ice cold water and frozen hand towels. Well, welcome to India!

The moment we exited the airport, I realized I would never criticize Kenyan driving again. There are two speeds in India, lightening fast to a screeching halt or creep along while riding the person's bumper in front of you beeping your horn. Kangai did not enjoy the incessant horn blowing at all. She was clearly irritated and sometimes found it difficult to hold a conversation. Now I had been to Nigeria so this was familiar to me. Even when they see that traffic is at a complete standstill, they will beep their horns. Kangai thought that maybe it was a way for them to communicate. LOL. I have to admit, the horn blowing here was much worse than Nigeria. One day when I was in the car with my Indian colleague, we were stopped at a security check. The driver blew the horn while the guard was checking the car in front of us. I wasn't sure what he could have bend trying to communicate. There was nothing to do but wait! SMH

As we barreled down the road from the airport, I was struck by how quickly the poverty level was revealed to us. One of the first sights we saw was a mother walking down the street with her child by the hand. The child was naked from the waist down, shoes were missing as well. Now you could say this was an isolated incident, but the scene was repeated throughout our stay. I was also shocked by the state of the roads. Some roads were better than others, but I didn't see any that would support the amount of growth India has seen over the past fifteen or so years. Maybe the issue is that India has grown faster than it's infrastructure and economy can accommodate.

I took this from car

One demographic doing well in India are the cows. Now these aren't the cute little 'moo' cows from California. These are the big, hump in the back cows that look like they work hard for a living. Well they are treated like gods in India and they are literally everywhere. If a cow decides to sit in middle of a major road, people would rather wreck their car than hit that cow. This causes a lot of near death experiences for us mere mortals.

When the cows decide they want to go get water from the river, they just go. They don't have escorts and they hangout all hours of the day and night. I believe they realize they are gods because they don't flinch when they are faced cars barreling down on them when they step on a major street. Now a California cow would probably scatter or at least be startled. Indian cows look as if they know you wouldn't hit a deity. And, the way people would probably react to you hitting the cow, you wouldn't dare. 

There were times when I felt trapped in the past while looking at the future. For instance, on the road to Agra, which is where the Taj Mahal is located, we encountered almost every mode of transportation known to man for the past hundred years. Traveling within a two mile radius we shared the road with mopeds, cows (lots of cows), bicycles, a camel, rickshaws, an elephant (yes, an elephant), cars, trucks, buses and wagons. We tried really hard to capture all of it, but we couldn't snap every picture in time. If I were driving I would have been absolutely terrified, but since I was a passenger, I was thoroughly entertained.

Now there were several times during the journey (4hours up and 6 hours back) when I felt like I was having a near death experience. Both Kangai and I got to the point where we couldn't watch the actual driving because it was too terrifying. As we were driving, we noticed that most of the cars drove with their side mirrors turned in. The reason for that became evident when we saw how close they drove to each other. The white lines in the middle of the street were completely ignored. They turned a two lane highway into a six lane highway without blinking. It is absolutely a miracle that there aren't accidents at every mile marker.

Folks, that is a sheep

There are two sightings I must tell you about before I go. The first was the sheep riding on the 
moped. Yes, I saw it with my own eyes and captured it in a picture. There were two men on the moped and the sheep was in between them lying across the seat. The funniest thing was that the sheep wasn't squirming at all. Could it be that it was enjoying the ride to the slaughter? I don't know, but it was an interesting sight.


Family on Moped
Mom, Dad, Two Kids

The second sighting was the family on one moped. The father was driving. There was a little boy who couldn't have been more than 4, sitting behind the dad. The mother was behind the little boy dressed in a full sari and sitting side-saddle holding a baby who couldn't have been more than 6 months old. Not one person was wearing a helmet and the mom was barely holding on to the seat of moped.

This was a normal size moped built for one to two people! For you mothers out there, the answer is, no there was nothing that resembled a car seat. This is truly shocking when you see it up close, because the mopeds fly in and out of traffic like bats out of hell. But, this is a normal occurrence. I was told by my Indian colleague that it's a combination of necessity and adaptation. I can understand that.

Well folks, I will cut this short for now. Tune in tomorrow when I will talk about how Kangai and I were treated like rock stars at the Taj Mahal. In the meantime enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Asante,

Della Rochelle
Copyright © 2011 by Della Rochelle Williams