Traffic in India is like a video game... It's fun but you can easily loose lives. Whether you are a member of a family of six riding a motorbike (proud father in the front, wife behind, him holding his waist only with one hand as with the other, she is balancing a baby wrapped in a cloth and a hat even in thirty degrees, and all the other children, one, two or three behind the parents). Or else, you are trying to get from point A to B on foot. Now that is a challenge! For one thing, you have to put up with all the noise and smog of the city. But you also have to be brave, attentive and self-conscious. When crossing the street, whether you have green or red light, keep your breath calm, be conscious of all your body parts and their dimensions and be quick and determined. Just like when practicing yoga. But it is not better when you are walking on the sideway either. First of all, you are lucky if there is such a thing as a sidewalk and it's not blocked by all the vendors on the street. Then you have to watch out for holes in the pavement and iron rods sticking out from it. And finally if you managed to go along without falling or bumping into any of these street furniture, you can still lose points by accidentally kicking other things lying around on the ground whether it be a sleeping dog or a sleeping man. Or else, your attention can be distracted by a discarded paper-machier god or goddess left over from a previous celebration, looking sideways, feeling aggrieved that he is no longer so important. The devotees now go to the other little shrines, where they can open the glass doors, place an incense stick in front of the colourful, elephant headed Ganesh or any other popular figure of the pantheon of Hindu gods. Keep going, if practice a lot, maybe soon you can go to level two but if you don't stick to the rules, easily it can be GAME OVER.
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AuthorMy month in Pune, India Archives
November 2017
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