Indian community& its traffic users

I bought the Indian version RD while strolling around New Delhi city which was sold on walkway along the boutique stores. I spotted there were also some collections of Sophie Kinsella's which I have read them all. Nevertheless I stopped by  to look for her latest book,Mini Shopaholic, but it was nowhere in sight. Instead, I picked up this RD which was cheaper as compared to the Malaysian version.

I came across these interesting facts one night before went to sleep.

WHO now estimates that 200,000 Indian die annually on their roads. India has just 1% of the road vehicles, yet 15% of all road traffic deaths happen here. 

Reader Digest India- December 2010.



I couldn`t agree more with the discoveries as I saw it with my naked eyes plus my terrifying experience on road of India. This happened on our first night arrived to India, we were brought to the hotel with three separate cabs. Zaira and a male friend ,Shamen and I were in one cab. It was less than 10 minutes we were on the road, we spotted traffic jam ahead. And it was in a nano-second, the cab driver made a swift u-turn on the very road with cars approaching us in opposite direction! I mean, seriously?? That scene shocked hell out of us, but the driver resumed his driving like nothing happened, crossed the barrier while we prayed hard that we`ll  reach hotel safely.

Most of local people use tuk-tukis, motorbikes and even bicycles while some were too poor to own any. There were some imported car spotted on the roads such as Suzuki Swift and Honda, with scratches all over the cars. But I believe those were belonged to diplomats who reside outside New Delhi city center.

When crossing roads, you don`t wait till the drivers give your way, because they never will unless you have the guts to cross the busy roads and waved to the drivers,hen only they slowed down, for a while and sped up as soon as the last fearless person crossed the road. Somehow, I managed to snap pictures while crossing the road, see how close we were to the traffic. Dangerous indeed, but what choice did we have? Nehi!

 

Fearless!



Indian drivers have a habit of honking while driving. I learnt that, I will go crazy if I let myself be bothered to the constant honking by our drivers and even from other drivers because they will never stop! It will be annoying in Malaysian traffic, but not in India. They were even creative enough when the honk sound was customized to a variation of tunes, and the driver can pick up which honk tune they favoured. As for our case, we were 'entertained' by chicken dance alike tune (which was claimed by Ezam) along the way to Agra.



HORN??  PLEASE



                               

Apparently, traffic light alone was not helpful enough to cater traffic demand in here. This living traffic light works day and night to ensure smooth traffic flow. I found this is an interesting sight on roads of India.

Living traffic light

                         

Poverty was also one of the main issues in the country. Before started off the tour, our guides kept on reminding us not to consider any beggars who will approach us. The reason being, once we gave money or anything to them, just wait for more of them to come to us like a feeding frenzy.

It was a hard work for us to dodge them. All we could do was to shake head, and walked away. Somehow, it was moving to see them bare foot, as young as 3 to 4 years old, wandered aimlessly in the crowd.

These poor populations will do almost anything to earn money for daily life. This video was captured during our visit to Fatehpur Sikri. There were bunch of men waiting for tourist who stopped by near the pond before they presented the showcase, just to earn 50 rupees which was equivalent less than RM4! Yes, maybe more, if the tourists were more generous. It was pitiful to see how they struggled to survive life in poverty.

These are only some of discoveries that I wished to write here. There are a lot more experiences throughout the trip with lessons worth to be learnt. In a nutshell, when we reached out to poor population country like this, then only I realized how lucky I am, living in a  peaceful country,comfortable with bottomless utilities and food supplies, despite the political and economical crisis. Sometimes, we unconsciously take things in life for granted. We thought we deserved these conveniences at no effort, while in other part of the world, people are struggling for their life to experience a day of comfy life we have been living. What say you?