On the first day the Ring Road gave to me, one lor-ry stalled!
On the second day the Ring Road gave to me; two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the third day the Ring Road gave to me; three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the fourth day the Ring Road gave to me ; four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the fifth day the Ring Road gave to me; five camels prancing, four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the sixth day the Ring Road gave to me: six cows a strolling, five camels prancing, four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the seventh day the Ring Road gave to me: seven goats a leaping, six cows a strolling, five camels prancing, four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the eigth day the Ring Road gave to me: eight horse carts crossing, seven goats a leaping, six cows a strolling, five camels prancing, four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the ninth day the Ring Road gave to me: nine bullock carts walking, eight horse carts crossing, seven goats a leaping, six cows a strolling, five camels prancing, four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the tenth day the Ring Road gave to me: ten bicycles peddling, nine bullock carts walking, eight horse carts crossing, seven goats a leaping, six cows a strolling, five camels prancing, four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the eleventh day the Ring Road gave to me: eleven hawkers selling, ten bicycles peddling, nine bullock carts walking, eight horse carts crossing, seven goats a leaping, six cows a strolling, five camels prancing, four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two busses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
On the twelfth day the Ring Road gave to me: twelve motorbikes weaving, eleven hawkers selling, ten bicycles peddling, nine bullock carts walking, eight horse carts crossing, seven goats a leaping, six cows a strolling, five camels prancing, four rickshaws slowing, three cars honking, two buses blocking and one lor-ry stalled!
Really!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
A Trip to Pondicherry and Environs - Part 2
On Sunday the 20th we went to Mahabillipuram and visited some shops before going back to see some of the stone carvings in the middle of the town. A guide offered his services at a very high price (by Indian standards) to describe all of the sites in the center of town. We said no, but asked how much just to tell us about the largest one- "Arjuna's Penance". He came back with a high price for that too, so we said no. He kept coming back with lower prices as we saw the sites and walked away. We hope that he might start at a more reasonable price the next time, but this is doubtful. We walked through the mountain near the twon center to see the carvings and it was hot and humid again, so we did not manage to endure for long. We
made our way back to the A/C in the car and left town to go to our hotel closer to Pondicherry.We arrived there about 3:30 PM, but seemed that our room was not ready yet, though they did not exactly say that to us. The staff asked us to have a seat and wait. Meanwhile, two other groups of people arrived and complained fairly vigorously that they wanted to go to their rooms. They ended up going before we did even though we were there first. We are not certain whether it was because our room really was not ready or because they complained more. It was a rather poor introduction to what we were told is a nice place. We got to the room to find it interesting.
It was a house from the state of Kerala that was rebuilt here, but it was dark inside and only the tiny sleeping rooms at the center were A/C'd. We decided to visit the beach and have a simple dinner at the small restaurant near the beach. This was reasonably pleasant.On Monday the 21st we road to Auroville. This is a "utopian community" near Pondicherry with about 2000 members- many are not Indian, but most are. We went to the visitor's center and the craft shops to find rather nice items. It was, of course, hot and humid. We too a battery powered shuttle to a giant golf ball
shaped building near the center of the lands and then went back to the car as quickly as we could.We got a bit disoriented on the roads and it took awhile to get into the city of Pondicherry. This area was a French colony for a long time and many people seem to speak with a french accent. The town was laid out more like a French city and is generally nice looking. We visited the Sri Aurobindo Handmade Paper Factory, which was not operating on this holiday, but the shops were open. One can get very nice hand made paper in India at reasonable prices. We enjoyed looking. We had a good lunch at a rooftop restaurant that had fans and was shaded and visited a few other shops before trying to make our way out of the city. Once again we got a little disoriented, but eventually made our way to the road back to our hotel.
We had dinner that was good and went back to our room. We watched part of a movie on DVD but got bored with it. As we prepared to go to bed Janet put some vaulables in the safe in a cabinet in the room and was shocked to find a tiny kitten in the cabinet too! The poor thing was very small and looked weak. We called the reception desk and they sent someone who took it away. It was very shocking. In the morning we asked if the kitten was ok, but no one on duty knew about it. They said that they try to protect all life forms living on the property, so we hope it is well.
Our checkout from the hotel was almost as slow as the check in. We could not find a battery charger for the mobile phones they insist on giving you at the place, so we had to pay about twice what they are worth in order to leave. Of course, Janet found the charger in her bag when we arrived home.
We came home by a somewhat different route. We took some smaller roads to go through a town named Gingee in order to see the ruins of a huge fort there. Of course it was very hot and humid, so we did not walk about as much as we might have liked. It was very interesting to see the place stretching across hills and plains. The guide books correctly state that few people come to this place, so one can walk around without bumping into many people. But, the heat was oppressive. So, we did not venture far from the car. The most interesting looking part was on top of a peak- with a LONG set of steps to get up there, so we did not attempt it. We were told that it would be best to start out before 8AM. Still it wa interesting to see the huge stone walls and remnants of buildings. It is supposed to date mainly from
the 1500's, but some parts are said to be 200-300 years older. It does not seem like a pleasant place to have a fort.We drove onward through temple towns and countryside until we rejoined the highway at the city of Krishnagiri to go back to Bangalore. As soon as we crossed to border from Tamil Nadu into Karnataka the roads got much worse and lots of construction going one. We stpped for coffee and snacks and got home just about sundown.
It was an interesting trip, but the phrase that keeps occuring to us is "too hot and humid". We are told that it is always that way along that part of the coast, though some times it is hotter than other times. The heat and humidity take a lot of energy away from you, so you can't do as much as you might like. The stone carvings and ruins were very much worth seeing.
Friday, September 25, 2009
A Trip to Pondicherry and Environs - Part 1
Because Sept. 21 was a holiday here in much of India (holidays vary around the country, so you can never be too certain whether people in other parts of the country are working or not.) We decided to take a long weekend and visit parts of the east coast just south of Chennai (Madras). There are a number of historical sites as well as Pondicherry, which is now called "Puducherry". More about that later.
We left Bangalore as early as we could manage on Friday Sept. 18 and road east toward Chennai. Bangalore is spread out over a huge area, so it took awhile to get out of the city environs. There is also a lot of road construction around Bangalore. Joseph, our driver, was generally happy to make the trip because we pay him extra for being away from home- as well as working Sunday's and Holidays. Almost as soon as we crossed the border from Karnataka state to Tamil Nadu state the roads got better. Joseph says that the roads in Tamil Nadu and Kerala state (the other southern - most state) are good compared to Karnataka. His statement seems the be true from our observations too.
The ride toward Chennai was on pretty good roads most of the way. The scenery was not all that exciting, but still interesting to see. Most of the terrain was flat, but with some stone peaks poking up all around. Bangalore is at about 3000 feet elevation, while much of TN is closer to sea level... and hot.
We drove all the way to the city of Vellore on the highway. We went there first to see the "Golden Temple" which Joseph heard about from friends, but we had not heard or read anything about it. It took awhile to reach outside of town and there were a lot of people around- partly because it was a holiday weekend and partly because it is a popular place. We drove into the parking area and looked around to see lines of people standing to get tickets to go inside (no temple in sight), then we saw that the people had to stand in LONG lines INSIDE a fenced CAGE in order to see the temple. The people were literally completely enclosed inside what appeared to be a cage with only a way in at one end and a way out at the other and a LONG wait in between. We said NO! to this idea. There is nothing worse than feeling trapped within a mass of people- we learned that from our first journey to Srirangapatnam and Brindavin Gardens last Dec. end. So, we did not see the temple, but we did catch a glimpse of some gold as we left the area on the road back to Vellore. We stopped at a hotel for a little food and drink and bathrooms before visiting the fort in this town.
The fort dates from the 1400- 1500's period and has an older temple inside as well. It was hot, but we drove in and parked and walked to the temple. The temple outside has lots of interesting stone carvings- not as intricate as the older temples at Halebid and Belur and Somnathpur, but lots of carvings- and big too! It is not colorful like many temples are painted. We started down the stairs to the temples
but were chased back by someone leaving who said somethings we did not understand, but eventually we realized he was pointing at our shoes. It is customary to remove shoes and there is normally a stand close to the Holy places where you leave shoes for a small fee (they often try to get a lot more from foreigners). Here it turned out that the shoe place was behind us, far from the level of the temple which was down a long flight of stairs. We decided not to leave the shoes and make the long walk inside the temple areas- it is a BIG temple. We looked around outside, took a few pictures and then went to the fort ramparts to look around. The fort is described as "well preserved" in our guide books and this appeared to be generally true- the moat is still present and much of the stone, so it was an interesting stop on the way to the coast.
We rely on Joseph to find the way most of the time, but, like most Indians, he does not really understand maps. Most of the people in the world don't understand maps. The maps of India are not all that great either. We have just a general atlas of India and it gave some guidance on how to get to the area of the coast where we wanted to go, but it is not a good guide- and there were NO SIGNS! We found that signs are either poor or non-existent in much of the parts of TN we were in, so people have to ask directions A LOT. Joesph, who speaks several Indian languages said that if he did not ask for directions in Tamil, they might very well give him the wrong directions! He said this is not unusual to happen. Of course, it is also the case that people do not know the right directions and will give SOME directions rather than say they are not sure! In any case, armed with poor maps, no signs, and a driver who speaks Tamil, we made our way into Chennai rather than go around it. We also had poor information from our hotel on where it is located south of Chennai- their information implied it was close to the southern edge of the city when it was quite a bit further away. As we made our way into Chennai we stopped to ask directions. Our atls did have fairly good maps of the big citties, so, between Jim's map reading skills and Joseph's Tamil direction asking skills, we maanged to find our way out of the city on the right road. The road is called the ECR - East Coast Road.
We read about a couple interesting places to stop along this road and found one of them near the city - Chola Arts community which is a modern art sort of commune and gallery. It was hot, and only mildly interesting so we did not stay long before heading off toward our hotel which they told Joseph is "nearby". We drove on for quite awhile and passed the other place we would visit the next day before ending up at the Taj Hotel at Fisherman's Cove. We were happy to check in and get to our A/C'd room at this point and we settled in for the night after a good dinner. The hotel has a number of individual bungalows or cottages that are quite nice- especially with A/C! It is located on the ground of a Dutch Fort from the early 1700's but little of the fort remains above ground now.
On Sat. the 19th we had a nice breakfast and headed out to "Tiger Cave". This is a little south of the hotel. The road is nice and not far from the water. The area was hit somewhat hard in 2004 by the Tsunami that hit from Indonesia. The monument
s in the area were not damaged much, but a few people were killed and many homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. We did not see pictures of before and after, so it is hard to say what happened, but we noticed a lot of clear areas which seem atypical of India! We also saw many young trees- we were told that many were planted since 2004 to act as a sort of breakwater against future tsunamis.
"Tiger Cave" is a misnomer for a feature carve out of a giant boulder. It is dated from around 700AD- probably a bit earlier. The main feature is an indentation carved in the rock surrounded by "Yali" heads. Yali are lion-like mythical creatures that also look a little like tigers. There were practically no other people here when we arrived! Of course, someone offered his guide services for about $2 which we accepted, knowing that we probably could have paid less than $1. After the Tsunami the government spent a little money putting a nice fence and lawn around the area which also inludes an old temple carved from another boulder just to the north of the tiger cave.
Ther are some other ruins still further north that were uncovered partly by the tsunami- those are being excavated now and we did not stop there, though we probably should have.
We proceed next to Mamallapuram or Mahabilipuram which is a well known tourist town. We first went to the "Shore Temple" and paid the entry fee which is also good for the other major site the "Five Rathas" at the southern end of town. Of course guides are all around wanting to be paid a lot to show us everything, but we said we just wanted someone for the shore temple in case we did not like the guy or decided not to see other places. The guide DO provide a useful service because most of the sites are mysterious to us. However, they can also provide much wrong information - like "Shiva is the preserver and Vishnu is the destroyer God" (its the other way around). It was REALLY Hot AND Humid, so it wa difficult to be enthusiastic about what we were seeing!. The guide told us that there were once other temples near the shore, but they were washed away in a typhoon about 500 years ago and only this one remains from about 1300years ago. We read that some other ruins were uncovered by the tsunami just south of the shore temple, but we did not see those either. There is a reclining Vishnu statue in this temple that is supposed to be older than the temple itself. The salt water and wind and such have rounded all of the temple carvings so it is interesting to see, but not that exciting- especially in the hot humid air. We were happy to make our way back to our A/C'd car!
We next road through town and went to the Five Rathas site. We read that this site was found in the early 1800's by the British after being buried in the sand for a very
long time. There are 5 temples carved out of granite boulders along with a Yali, a large elephant and a bull. All are nicely done, but, apparently, never completed! We did not stay long because of the heat.
We visted some of the stone carving shops nearby. This has, apparently, remained a stone carving center for more than 1000 years. There is a lot of very nice work from small tourist trinkets to huge religious and decorative sculptures here that may be shipped any where in the world. We looked around and decided we would return the next day after pondering what we saw. We drove by some very large carvings on what is essentially a small mountain at the center of town. The most famous is called "Arjuna's Penance" (but apparently there are some who think the name is incorrect). This has an amazing variety of figures
from full size elephants to people, cats, rats, and Gods over an area aabou 38 feet high by 95 feet long. We did not stay long and came back the next day. We made a couple quick stops in shops in the town, but the heat had made us tired, so we left.
We stopped at "Dakshina Chitra" north of our hotel to pay a quick visit. It started to rain around 4PM just before we arrived. This was well worth a visit. We had to hurry due to short time and many exhibits were not active or closed because it was late and there were few people around. They have taken homes and other
buildings from other parts of India and re-constructed them here. Generally these are nicer homes and interesting to see. They also have craft demonstrations. We watched a silk weaver making what will be a beautiful fabric when finished. We only saw the inside of about half the buildings and missed the outside of a few too. We returned to the hotel to cool off and have dinner.
We left Bangalore as early as we could manage on Friday Sept. 18 and road east toward Chennai. Bangalore is spread out over a huge area, so it took awhile to get out of the city environs. There is also a lot of road construction around Bangalore. Joseph, our driver, was generally happy to make the trip because we pay him extra for being away from home- as well as working Sunday's and Holidays. Almost as soon as we crossed the border from Karnataka state to Tamil Nadu state the roads got better. Joseph says that the roads in Tamil Nadu and Kerala state (the other southern - most state) are good compared to Karnataka. His statement seems the be true from our observations too.
The ride toward Chennai was on pretty good roads most of the way. The scenery was not all that exciting, but still interesting to see. Most of the terrain was flat, but with some stone peaks poking up all around. Bangalore is at about 3000 feet elevation, while much of TN is closer to sea level... and hot.
We drove all the way to the city of Vellore on the highway. We went there first to see the "Golden Temple" which Joseph heard about from friends, but we had not heard or read anything about it. It took awhile to reach outside of town and there were a lot of people around- partly because it was a holiday weekend and partly because it is a popular place. We drove into the parking area and looked around to see lines of people standing to get tickets to go inside (no temple in sight), then we saw that the people had to stand in LONG lines INSIDE a fenced CAGE in order to see the temple. The people were literally completely enclosed inside what appeared to be a cage with only a way in at one end and a way out at the other and a LONG wait in between. We said NO! to this idea. There is nothing worse than feeling trapped within a mass of people- we learned that from our first journey to Srirangapatnam and Brindavin Gardens last Dec. end. So, we did not see the temple, but we did catch a glimpse of some gold as we left the area on the road back to Vellore. We stopped at a hotel for a little food and drink and bathrooms before visiting the fort in this town.
The fort dates from the 1400- 1500's period and has an older temple inside as well. It was hot, but we drove in and parked and walked to the temple. The temple outside has lots of interesting stone carvings- not as intricate as the older temples at Halebid and Belur and Somnathpur, but lots of carvings- and big too! It is not colorful like many temples are painted. We started down the stairs to the temples
but were chased back by someone leaving who said somethings we did not understand, but eventually we realized he was pointing at our shoes. It is customary to remove shoes and there is normally a stand close to the Holy places where you leave shoes for a small fee (they often try to get a lot more from foreigners). Here it turned out that the shoe place was behind us, far from the level of the temple which was down a long flight of stairs. We decided not to leave the shoes and make the long walk inside the temple areas- it is a BIG temple. We looked around outside, took a few pictures and then went to the fort ramparts to look around. The fort is described as "well preserved" in our guide books and this appeared to be generally true- the moat is still present and much of the stone, so it was an interesting stop on the way to the coast.
We rely on Joseph to find the way most of the time, but, like most Indians, he does not really understand maps. Most of the people in the world don't understand maps. The maps of India are not all that great either. We have just a general atlas of India and it gave some guidance on how to get to the area of the coast where we wanted to go, but it is not a good guide- and there were NO SIGNS! We found that signs are either poor or non-existent in much of the parts of TN we were in, so people have to ask directions A LOT. Joesph, who speaks several Indian languages said that if he did not ask for directions in Tamil, they might very well give him the wrong directions! He said this is not unusual to happen. Of course, it is also the case that people do not know the right directions and will give SOME directions rather than say they are not sure! In any case, armed with poor maps, no signs, and a driver who speaks Tamil, we made our way into Chennai rather than go around it. We also had poor information from our hotel on where it is located south of Chennai- their information implied it was close to the southern edge of the city when it was quite a bit further away. As we made our way into Chennai we stopped to ask directions. Our atls did have fairly good maps of the big citties, so, between Jim's map reading skills and Joseph's Tamil direction asking skills, we maanged to find our way out of the city on the right road. The road is called the ECR - East Coast Road.
We read about a couple interesting places to stop along this road and found one of them near the city - Chola Arts community which is a modern art sort of commune and gallery. It was hot, and only mildly interesting so we did not stay long before heading off toward our hotel which they told Joseph is "nearby". We drove on for quite awhile and passed the other place we would visit the next day before ending up at the Taj Hotel at Fisherman's Cove. We were happy to check in and get to our A/C'd room at this point and we settled in for the night after a good dinner. The hotel has a number of individual bungalows or cottages that are quite nice- especially with A/C! It is located on the ground of a Dutch Fort from the early 1700's but little of the fort remains above ground now.
On Sat. the 19th we had a nice breakfast and headed out to "Tiger Cave". This is a little south of the hotel. The road is nice and not far from the water. The area was hit somewhat hard in 2004 by the Tsunami that hit from Indonesia. The monument
s in the area were not damaged much, but a few people were killed and many homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed. We did not see pictures of before and after, so it is hard to say what happened, but we noticed a lot of clear areas which seem atypical of India! We also saw many young trees- we were told that many were planted since 2004 to act as a sort of breakwater against future tsunamis."Tiger Cave" is a misnomer for a feature carve out of a giant boulder. It is dated from around 700AD- probably a bit earlier. The main feature is an indentation carved in the rock surrounded by "Yali" heads. Yali are lion-like mythical creatures that also look a little like tigers. There were practically no other people here when we arrived! Of course, someone offered his guide services for about $2 which we accepted, knowing that we probably could have paid less than $1. After the Tsunami the government spent a little money putting a nice fence and lawn around the area which also inludes an old temple carved from another boulder just to the north of the tiger cave.
Ther are some other ruins still further north that were uncovered partly by the tsunami- those are being excavated now and we did not stop there, though we probably should have.
We proceed next to Mamallapuram or Mahabilipuram which is a well known tourist town. We first went to the "Shore Temple" and paid the entry fee which is also good for the other major site the "Five Rathas" at the southern end of town. Of course guides are all around wanting to be paid a lot to show us everything, but we said we just wanted someone for the shore temple in case we did not like the guy or decided not to see other places. The guide DO provide a useful service because most of the sites are mysterious to us. However, they can also provide much wrong information - like "Shiva is the preserver and Vishnu is the destroyer God" (its the other way around). It was REALLY Hot AND Humid, so it wa difficult to be enthusiastic about what we were seeing!. The guide told us that there were once other temples near the shore, but they were washed away in a typhoon about 500 years ago and only this one remains from about 1300years ago. We read that some other ruins were uncovered by the tsunami just south of the shore temple, but we did not see those either. There is a reclining Vishnu statue in this temple that is supposed to be older than the temple itself. The salt water and wind and such have rounded all of the temple carvings so it is interesting to see, but not that exciting- especially in the hot humid air. We were happy to make our way back to our A/C'd car!
We next road through town and went to the Five Rathas site. We read that this site was found in the early 1800's by the British after being buried in the sand for a very
long time. There are 5 temples carved out of granite boulders along with a Yali, a large elephant and a bull. All are nicely done, but, apparently, never completed! We did not stay long because of the heat.We visted some of the stone carving shops nearby. This has, apparently, remained a stone carving center for more than 1000 years. There is a lot of very nice work from small tourist trinkets to huge religious and decorative sculptures here that may be shipped any where in the world. We looked around and decided we would return the next day after pondering what we saw. We drove by some very large carvings on what is essentially a small mountain at the center of town. The most famous is called "Arjuna's Penance" (but apparently there are some who think the name is incorrect). This has an amazing variety of figures
from full size elephants to people, cats, rats, and Gods over an area aabou 38 feet high by 95 feet long. We did not stay long and came back the next day. We made a couple quick stops in shops in the town, but the heat had made us tired, so we left.We stopped at "Dakshina Chitra" north of our hotel to pay a quick visit. It started to rain around 4PM just before we arrived. This was well worth a visit. We had to hurry due to short time and many exhibits were not active or closed because it was late and there were few people around. They have taken homes and other
buildings from other parts of India and re-constructed them here. Generally these are nicer homes and interesting to see. They also have craft demonstrations. We watched a silk weaver making what will be a beautiful fabric when finished. We only saw the inside of about half the buildings and missed the outside of a few too. We returned to the hotel to cool off and have dinner.Sunday, September 6, 2009
"I will be hitting you!"
So said the driver of the little car as he turned down the road right in front of us as we walked across. Of course, he was not going to hit us, but he was warning us to be careful. It is a little incongruous that people will drive VERY aggressively here, yet they are really serious about trying not to hit anyone or any thing. It is a little difficult to trust other drivers to watch out for YOU when they are so intent on trying to move ahead of you if they can do it. Yet, this is exactly what people do. They seem to have tremendous trust that the other drivers are paying close attention to everyone and everything around them and really intent on avoiding a collision. Yet the same drivers have no qualms about squeezing in the smallest space between your vehicle and another if they think they can do it without collision. So, why are these drivers trusted to be watching out so carefully? It is mysterious, but real. We can only guess that they really do have a social conscience that tells them not to cause harm (while aggressively pursuing their own goal to get where they aim to go).
We should mention that this social conscience may not apply to the drivers for the "call center" vehicles. These drivers seem to be notorious all around Bangalore for their "Foolhardy Aggressiveness" while driving. The are almost always driving what we would call an "SUV"- a relatively large box- like vehicle into which 6 or 8 passengers are squeezed. These vehicles are used to pick up people who work in the many "call centers" around the city and take then to work and to take them home again. The Call Centers are the places where a lot of you Indians get jobs that pay better than they might get otherwise. They are the people who answer the "help lines" for nearly every large corporation around the world. Anyway, these drivers are crazy! When you see one of these vehicle, you know right away to watch out! They rarely slow down to allow other drivers to proceed regardless of who might seem to have the "right of way". THEY have the right of way unless someone is foolish enough to place their vehicle in the way. Call center drivers and many auto- rickshaw drivers have the worst reputations for being drives to avoid.
One question that might arise is: "if there is not really a principle of right of way based on some laws or on societal understanding, then how do they decide WHO has priority in a traffic situation?" This does not really have an easy answer. However, it is clear that "size matters". If a big lorry wants to go somewhere, he will normally just go and other vehicles will make way. Similarly, big buses have some freedom to navigate over a smaller lorry. And the bigger cars have some freedom over smaller ones and over auto rickshaws, and motorbikes over bicycles and bicycles over pedestrians. But then, there are the cows. Cows have an "effective size" that is larger than buses or a big lorry. That is one way to explain why cows rarely get hit. We are sure that this can all be written in an elaborate equation. We will leave that exercise to you readers! The bigger vehicles take priority when they want to move around, but the smaller vehicles can move more quickly and actually still arrive where they want to go more quickly most of the time. So, size and the wish not to cause harm combined with aggressiveness on the road describes a lot of what makes traffic move in Bangalore.
Ziggy and Zoe have been very quiet lately. Maybe they have started another blog?
Janet's knees have been better since returning from Africa and going to physical therapy. Jim has been reasonably healthy since January, but now has a cold or flu. H1N1 has been blamed for 35 deaths in Bangalore so far- this is the highest number for any city in India. We don't think that is what Jim has. He seems to be feeling somewhat better right now. It is probably allergy related.
The past two weeks have been part of the "Ganesha Festival". Ganesha is the Hindu God who has a human body but the head of an elephant. He is generally believed to bring good luck. (We now have several Ganesha statues- can never have too much good luck!) We don't know what goes on at the festivals, but they are all over the city. We hear firecrackers exploding most evenings in celebration. Apparently, the end of one of the festivals involved taking a Ganesha statue into a body of water and immersing it. Unfortunately, some of these statues are quite large and they take many men to carry it. So, a consequence is that a number of men drown each year. A recent article in the newspaper said that 13 have drowned so far- that may only be for one part of the country. It is a sad way to end a celebration.
We should mention that this social conscience may not apply to the drivers for the "call center" vehicles. These drivers seem to be notorious all around Bangalore for their "Foolhardy Aggressiveness" while driving. The are almost always driving what we would call an "SUV"- a relatively large box- like vehicle into which 6 or 8 passengers are squeezed. These vehicles are used to pick up people who work in the many "call centers" around the city and take then to work and to take them home again. The Call Centers are the places where a lot of you Indians get jobs that pay better than they might get otherwise. They are the people who answer the "help lines" for nearly every large corporation around the world. Anyway, these drivers are crazy! When you see one of these vehicle, you know right away to watch out! They rarely slow down to allow other drivers to proceed regardless of who might seem to have the "right of way". THEY have the right of way unless someone is foolish enough to place their vehicle in the way. Call center drivers and many auto- rickshaw drivers have the worst reputations for being drives to avoid.
One question that might arise is: "if there is not really a principle of right of way based on some laws or on societal understanding, then how do they decide WHO has priority in a traffic situation?" This does not really have an easy answer. However, it is clear that "size matters". If a big lorry wants to go somewhere, he will normally just go and other vehicles will make way. Similarly, big buses have some freedom to navigate over a smaller lorry. And the bigger cars have some freedom over smaller ones and over auto rickshaws, and motorbikes over bicycles and bicycles over pedestrians. But then, there are the cows. Cows have an "effective size" that is larger than buses or a big lorry. That is one way to explain why cows rarely get hit. We are sure that this can all be written in an elaborate equation. We will leave that exercise to you readers! The bigger vehicles take priority when they want to move around, but the smaller vehicles can move more quickly and actually still arrive where they want to go more quickly most of the time. So, size and the wish not to cause harm combined with aggressiveness on the road describes a lot of what makes traffic move in Bangalore.
Ziggy and Zoe have been very quiet lately. Maybe they have started another blog?
Janet's knees have been better since returning from Africa and going to physical therapy. Jim has been reasonably healthy since January, but now has a cold or flu. H1N1 has been blamed for 35 deaths in Bangalore so far- this is the highest number for any city in India. We don't think that is what Jim has. He seems to be feeling somewhat better right now. It is probably allergy related.
The past two weeks have been part of the "Ganesha Festival". Ganesha is the Hindu God who has a human body but the head of an elephant. He is generally believed to bring good luck. (We now have several Ganesha statues- can never have too much good luck!) We don't know what goes on at the festivals, but they are all over the city. We hear firecrackers exploding most evenings in celebration. Apparently, the end of one of the festivals involved taking a Ganesha statue into a body of water and immersing it. Unfortunately, some of these statues are quite large and they take many men to carry it. So, a consequence is that a number of men drown each year. A recent article in the newspaper said that 13 have drowned so far- that may only be for one part of the country. It is a sad way to end a celebration.
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