Tuesday Morning in India.
A rainy morning after a rainy night, but really, the rains haven't been bad. More like Florida rains - it's nice for most of the day, then a sudden downpour comes.
The roads are relatively clear right now at 8am because rush hour doesn't start until about 9-9:30. The shopping mall just down the road from me doesn't open until 11:30. That's a bit later than most stores (10 am is standard), but the work day is definitely shifted to a later hour. Dinner is normally eaten between 9-10pm. (We are happy to eat our dinner around 6:30-7:30 because then we have it fresh from our cook Tina. Tonight, it will be hot luchi (puri) with chana (chickpeas). Luchi is a flat bread like a tortilla (chapati or roti) that is fried, and then it puffs up. You have to eat them straight from the stove top!)
Driving in the city is an art, and not one I plan to learn. Very rarely can you see the line markings, but that is mostly irrelevant because even if there are 3 lanes, there are almost always 1-2 more vehicles on that same spanse. And by vehicles I mean the following: private cars (mostly driven by drivers), taxis, public buses which appear very wide, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, occasional bullock carts, occasional brave bicyclists - often transporting cylinders for the gas stovetops, as well as auto-rickshaws.
Auto rickshaws are the standard, very cheap way to get around in the northern half of Mumbai. They are 3-wheeled, open-air vehicles with a cover over the top, around the back and a tarp kind of curtain on the passengers' sides. The driver is positioned right in the middle of the front, and you can fit two people easily in the back, but quite often you will see four people wedged in, sometimes five. In the areas where they are permitted, they comprise about one-fourth, up to one-half of the total vehicles. Some trips can cost as little as 60 cents, and that's for 3-4 people being transported! Their engines make a buzzing noise, almost like an amplified locust sound. Hannah had a great time traveling around in them with friends on Friday after school, going from shop to shop to dinner (shwarmas). She was astounded by how cheap and plentiful they were.
Of course the motorcycles whip through this maze with what looks like great ease - even with a family of four on board. (It seems they all have great balance; the woman on back is often riding side-saddle in a sari.) Add in to the mix the pedestrians walking across the road at any given time. It's no easier to cross the road at an intersection due to the volume of "vehicles" trying to turn in addition to those cars that are ignoring the traffic signals.
Please know that i write all of this (the waiting, the complications, the traffic) with a smile on my face because it is all part of the amazing experience here in India. And, of course, as a westerner we are only privy to some of it!
I am attaching a little video to capture the sounds and sights of the roads here. This video is a somewhat mild one since we are in the northern, less populated half of Mumbai. What's amazing is that you see or hear very few collisions.
(Well, i wanted to add a video, but I couldn't seem to make it work. I will try another day.)
One thing you do hear is horns - and often. Horns are just part of driving here. In fact, many of the trucks have "Horn OK Please" written on the back.
Luckily, I am saved the danger of hitting a pedestrian, scraping against a car so close you worry about your side mirrors, or doing a three-point turn in the midst of jammed traffic because we have Ranjit, our driver. He glides us through the busy streets with patience - especially considering he has to answer all of my questions along the way...
A rainy morning after a rainy night, but really, the rains haven't been bad. More like Florida rains - it's nice for most of the day, then a sudden downpour comes.
The roads are relatively clear right now at 8am because rush hour doesn't start until about 9-9:30. The shopping mall just down the road from me doesn't open until 11:30. That's a bit later than most stores (10 am is standard), but the work day is definitely shifted to a later hour. Dinner is normally eaten between 9-10pm. (We are happy to eat our dinner around 6:30-7:30 because then we have it fresh from our cook Tina. Tonight, it will be hot luchi (puri) with chana (chickpeas). Luchi is a flat bread like a tortilla (chapati or roti) that is fried, and then it puffs up. You have to eat them straight from the stove top!)
Driving in the city is an art, and not one I plan to learn. Very rarely can you see the line markings, but that is mostly irrelevant because even if there are 3 lanes, there are almost always 1-2 more vehicles on that same spanse. And by vehicles I mean the following: private cars (mostly driven by drivers), taxis, public buses which appear very wide, trucks, motorcycles, scooters, occasional bullock carts, occasional brave bicyclists - often transporting cylinders for the gas stovetops, as well as auto-rickshaws.
Auto rickshaws are the standard, very cheap way to get around in the northern half of Mumbai. They are 3-wheeled, open-air vehicles with a cover over the top, around the back and a tarp kind of curtain on the passengers' sides. The driver is positioned right in the middle of the front, and you can fit two people easily in the back, but quite often you will see four people wedged in, sometimes five. In the areas where they are permitted, they comprise about one-fourth, up to one-half of the total vehicles. Some trips can cost as little as 60 cents, and that's for 3-4 people being transported! Their engines make a buzzing noise, almost like an amplified locust sound. Hannah had a great time traveling around in them with friends on Friday after school, going from shop to shop to dinner (shwarmas). She was astounded by how cheap and plentiful they were.
Of course the motorcycles whip through this maze with what looks like great ease - even with a family of four on board. (It seems they all have great balance; the woman on back is often riding side-saddle in a sari.) Add in to the mix the pedestrians walking across the road at any given time. It's no easier to cross the road at an intersection due to the volume of "vehicles" trying to turn in addition to those cars that are ignoring the traffic signals.
I am attaching a little video to capture the sounds and sights of the roads here. This video is a somewhat mild one since we are in the northern, less populated half of Mumbai. What's amazing is that you see or hear very few collisions.
(Well, i wanted to add a video, but I couldn't seem to make it work. I will try another day.)
One thing you do hear is horns - and often. Horns are just part of driving here. In fact, many of the trucks have "Horn OK Please" written on the back.
Luckily, I am saved the danger of hitting a pedestrian, scraping against a car so close you worry about your side mirrors, or doing a three-point turn in the midst of jammed traffic because we have Ranjit, our driver. He glides us through the busy streets with patience - especially considering he has to answer all of my questions along the way...
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