Driving in India

As I have mentioned before, what is probably the biggest culture shock when coming to India (at least Delhi and Pune) from the US is the driving. Fortunately, since we are here on business, we never have to drive. This is a good thing as I do not know if we would survive trying to drive ourselves around town. It occurred to me that there must be some sort of special driving school that Indians must attend before they are allowed to drive on the often congested roadways in India.

I noticed a seriously liberal use of the horn by most motorists there. The horn was used almost as an extension of the regular car indicators. It appeared that motorists would not honk when they were angry at another driver, they would just honk to say, "Hey, I'm right behind you, I want to get around you, please don't hit me!" I asked a colleague in Pune if Indians ever have road rage. He responded stating that the drivers drive with a lot of forgiveness. So, if they do have road rage it doesn't last. My guess is that real road rage is prevented by their policy of forgiveness while driving. I think some Americans trying to drive in India would absolutely lose it.

On the way back to the US, we flew from Pune to Delhi. I had a little time in Delhi, so I got a taxi and went around town a little (pictures to come later). I happened to get a great taxi driver. I asked him about driving in India. He said he had been a taxi driver for more than 10 years in several cities in India, including Agra and Jaipur. So I figured he was literally a pro at driving in India. He said that to drive successfully in India, there are 3 things one must have:

1. Heart - With heart, you are considerate of others. When you have heart, you don't have road rage. This is where forgiveness in driving comes in.
   
2. Brakes - Driving in India is crazy as it is. There are cars, trucks, motorcycles, mopeds, bikes, people, cows, pigs and goats to avoid while driving in India. Sometimes these things appear from nowhere. Good brakes are obviously imperative in India.
   
3. Luck - I am amazed that I do not see more accidents when driving around India. In fact I am amazed that I was never involved in even a fender bender. I indeed felt lucky every time we arrived at our destination safely.
   

I got this guy's business card so if I am ever in Delhi again and in need of a taxi, I can look him up. If you are there and you need a good tour guide and a safe driver, so can you:

VIR SINGH SAHOTA
DL1T 5754
Mobile: 9818292599
Office: Hyatt Hotel Taxi Stand
New Delhi-110066

Tour de Pune

Here are some pictures from a little tour of Pune we had yesterday. We visited some of the same sites from the last trip, but we saw some new things too. Click here to see more pictures from our little excursion on our day off.

Aga Khan Palace


A warning sign at the Snake Park


Snakes!

Shared Pictures

I've shared most of the pictures I've taken while here on ShutterFly here: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AYsmTZs2cMWLlo

-Harry

Driving Through Pune

Here are some pictures that I took as we drove into Pune from the airport on Thursday. I apologize for the tinted window effect.

Pune mall facade

Interesting Pune building


??? What is this anyway? Can I get a translator?


Pune morning street
 

Saturday Commute

Here's a picture from this morning as we rode into work.

In Pune

Well, I made it back to Pune. I am here now with one other person from work. We left on Tuesday from Tampa, FL then flew to Newark, NJ. From there we took a non-stop, 14-hour flight to Delhi, India.

Side note about the flight to Delhi: Oh man...that flight can be brutal, especially when you need the leg room and you are not in first or business class. It also doesn't help when the guy in front of you puts his seat back for the entire flight...literally. In fact, he did not put it up until we were almost in Delhi and the flight attendant literally had to push the button for him to put it back. To make things worse, i started the flight in the aisle seat with only a guy sitting next to me in the Window seat; no one was in between us. I get up to use the bathroom, and some guy mysteriously appears in the middle seat. What am I supposed to do 30 minutes into the 14 hour flight? Tell the guy he can't sit there? That didn't seem right. So much for the little extra leg room. What a bummer. That guy stayed there for just about the entire flight. It turns out he moved up to be next to me to make room so his family could get some sleep on the flight. OK, so I suppose he was somewhat justified.

We arrived in Delhi around 8PM, which was much better than the 11+PM we got there last time around. We spent the night at the ITC Hotel Maurya Sheraton, which turns out to be one of the best hotels in Delhi, which I would hope given the price we had to pay for it. We had a good Kingfisher and kebab dinner then slept for a few hours until we had to get up to catch the 8AM plane from Delhi to Pune.

We arrived in Pune without much hassle, went to the hotel to unload our bags and have lunch before heading into work for the day. The hotel, Le Meridien, is pretty nice; at least a step above the the last hotel we stayed at here. The restaurants here are especially good. It turns out we just missed a big festival all about Ganesh here in Pune by one day. Read about it here.

So, there has not been much so report since then (hence the delayed post) especially since we generally have been working late and I have been pretty jet lagged. I do have a few pictures that I will post later.


It's Saturday evening now and we plan to go for the "Chinese/Thai" restaurant they have here for dinner. Tomorrow, we plan to take a little tour of Pune. I will hopefully have some more pictures from that.

Cheers!

Harry