"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.