Sunday, August 14, 2011

What to expect when driving on Indian roads


1.     Paranoid female drivers honking every 2 minutes.
2.     Frustrated men who’re always eager to fight.
3.     2-hour traffic jams because it rained for 5 minutes and the roads melted.
4.     Everyone is going to be in a hurry because Indians have to meet with President Obama like every hour and they cannot be late ever.
5.     Rickshawallas and Autowalas like to believe that they can ride just as fast as a car can, hence, they do not let you overtake them.
6.     If you own an SUV, you automatically are a superior race. You can drive however you want and get away with it.
7.     Jatt Boys blasting Amplifier at 11 pm…. In a Santro.
8.     2-hour traffic jams because a herd of cows was crossing the road.
9.     Small kids randomly coming and cleaning your car and then getting majorly pissed when you refuse to give them money.
10. Irrespective of whether you did a good thing or a bad thing, people will stare at you. They just will.
11. When in a parking lot, people will park their cars blocking yours* and you will have to deal with it.
12. When in a market, uncles will stop their cars in the middle of the road to chitchat with shopkeepers.
13. You may want halt your car suddenly in the middle of a busy road because you saw some object lying and red fluid coming out of it, but don’t worry, chances are that it’s just an empty Mc Donalds bag with squished ketchup.
14. If you see a car with a yellow number plate, BEWARE, IT’S GOING TO WANT TO OVERTAKE YOU ON A RED LIGHT ALSO. (Taxi drivers are the worst drivers)
15.  There’s going to be some sort of construction work going on on every second road. And of course, once dug up, the roads are never rebuilt.
16. The rear windshield of cars will read every Indian name there is.. like Rinku, Pinku, Sapna, Sheetal, Bitoo, Pappu etc. You also see the “GUJJAR BOY” every now and then**
17.  Bus Drivers and Trucks will enter residential colonies and drives around like a boss. Car drivers may have to reverse their cars for several meters to make way for heavy duty vehicles, which is totally rational.
18. Bikers are going to honk worse than female drivers and want to overtake your car by hook or by crook. It’s an ego thing and you do not want them to lose face, so you let the Rats.. err.. Bikers take you over.
19.  (Note: You won’t experience this while driving on an Indian road.) Travelling in autos (3 wheelers, as some weirdos may call them) will familiarize you with Bollywood better than any Tabloid or TV Channel will. Interiors of autos have them all- Aishwarya, Mamta (Kulkarni), Katrina, Raveena (Tandon), Govinda, Salman..

     * In a parking lot, cars are parked vertically. Now some son of a gun will come park his car horizontally, blocking your car, so that you have to wait till he arrives.
     *   You see names of people in that ghostly text, even in 2011. Not like that font went from being cool to kEwl 10 years back. This text-

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