Cows on the Road- Morning Commute

Cows on the Road

I took this picture while driving to work today morning. I often meet cows on my morning commute. But earlier I could not take pictures as I had no camera in my phone. Would love to click a picture from the other direction. Then you can see what huge horns the cows have! And of course, they take their own sweet time to make up their minds which way they wish to go. Honk as you might, they are just not swayed. But as I wrote before, on Indian roads, give me cows any day.

Remembering the Cold Weather in Oxford

Bus Stop, Harcourt Hill, Oxford

Last year at the end of October, I was waiting for a bus at a stop in Oxford. It was damn cold even during the day but the saving grace is that almost everything is heated and you really do not need heavy woolens indoors. I had gone to the University (not the Oxford) and was waiting for a bus along with a colleague outside. For some reason or the other the bus was taking some time to come and I don't know why I did not had my thick jacket (the one I am wearing in this blog's profile picture, it is a real old one, faded and all, but it is quite warm). Maybe I didn't carry it because I would always get the bus quickly and I did not wish to carry the extra jacket around. I remember I was literally jumping up and down to keep away the cold.

The Warm and Cozy Bus

Thankfully the bus came after a while and I really liked the hot air that would circulate on my feet if I would sit on the left hand side of the bus at the top. Also this time in June I remember one of my British colleague asking me if I found the bus uncomfortable! I asked him if he has ever been to India and been inside a bus? As he has visited India, he immediately got my point. I mean, a heated or air conditioned almost empty bus and uncomfortable??

When the Car Felt Like a Boat!

Yesterday (14/08/2008) I needed to get out of the office around 4.00 in the evening to attend a meeting elsewhere. There were three of us. A little while ago the skies had opened and the rain was coming down like anything. Standing at the gate of our office, we saw a river on the street (it happens whenever it rains heavily around my office area). The meeting was canceled because the river on the road would lead to massive traffic jams later and we would never be able to make it back to our office again. Not before 10 at night at least!

I went back to my room and did some work. The rain continued. In situations like this you either leave early or leave late, else you just sit in the traffic jam. I usually leave late. But by 5.00 the rain still was pouring and even I started to worry. I thought 5.00 pm was still OK and decided to leave.

I took the car out and 100 meters ahead there was a small jam. I did not think too much about it. But the next door big software consultancy office also decided to let their employees go before time. They have more than 20 buses and they started to come out on the river err ... road. And then the traffic just stopped moving. I was still lucky that every 20 minutes we would crawl a meter (and I am not exaggerating). The traffic towards Delhi was just standing still. And the rain kept hitting the windscreen of my car with such a force! I had to keep the windows closed, switch the engine off (as we were not going anywhere and petrol is expensive) and it felt quite claustrophobic.

One hour later, I was still sitting on the same stretch of the road. Usually when massive rains occur I leave office around 8.00 pm. I called home and told them that it looks like I would reach sometime after 8.00 only, as the traffic is just not moving.

One and a half hour later I crossed the 'big consultancy' office road and across the turn, the river got even bigger. A lot of people where ditching there stationary office cabs and just walked through knee deep water. The factory workers were also wading through the water, sometimes with their bicycles. I took solace from the fact that as none of the other small cars have stopped, my Maruti 800 would also hold! When a group of people or motorcyclists would cross together, I could feel the water hitting the floor of my car, and it gave a sensation that I was sitting in a boat!

Thankfully the rain lessened after a while and I could roll the windows down. After crawling for another 20 meters, a gentleman (a foreigner too, by the look of him) going in the opposite direction in a big SUV asked me, "Excuse me have you seen the blockage, what is it?" I told him, "No I have not seen the blockage, but I have not seen a single car moving even an inch for the past one and a half hours in your direction". He said, "Well, I have been sitting here for an hour myself, at least in your direction the traffic is moving." My reply was, "You call this moving? In one and a half hours I have just moved beyond those huge office blocks." He told me there was even more water ahead in my direction! After a while my side traffic crawled another inch or so and our conversation ended.

He was right about the water, on the stretch ahead there was even more water but thankfully the car didn't stop. Struggling for some more time, I finally managed to take the turn towards my residential area. The traffic was moving normally here.

At 7.30 in the evening, two and a half hours later I had left, I managed to reach home, covering a distance of 8 kilometers! And it was a pity I didn't had my small camera with me yesterday or surely to pass the time, I would have clicked a few pictures and posted it here.

I have to say one thing, Maruti Suzuki makes decent boats err... cars.

And Happy Independence Day!

Yet Another BBC Mention!

Mentioned at BBC (see picture 4)

Remember this picture of the traffic jam? Now it is featured at the BBC too. BBC has asked for pictures of commuting and it is good Deepak who told me about it in a comment and through an email. I am a regular reader at BBC but I had missed this one.

And then, it was another comment by good Mohit through which I came to know that the picture was finally picked up by BBC editors. Thank you Deepak and Mohit for letting me know. It always feels good when the pictures get picked up somewhere!

PS. An earlier BBC mention (see picture 3).

Lazy Sunday Photo- The Chaos We Create

This happens at least once in a month on the way to office!

Traffic Jam: On the Way to Office

I started fresh in the morning for work. As I put the songs of Arth (an old Hindi movie's songs) in the music system, Jagjit Singh crooned ‘tum itna jo muskura rahe ho, kya gam kai jisko chupa rahe ho’ (very difficult to translate this one in English, so I let it go). I hummed along (and I am very bad at it, totally off key) thinking within no time I will reach my workplace. How mistaken I was! For 28 out of 30 days of a month, I usually get a smooth ride (by Indian conditions) to work but for the two other days, it can be hell. Today was one of those days and I am glad I had my camera with me.

What happens is this, that at a place we people have to take a turn right and the traffic from the right try to go the other way. There are huge call centre and software office’s contract buses trying to go and come out and at times they stand in front of each-other. Then people start trying to go from the wrong side and within no time it is a gridlock.

The two cars here are trying to take a right and the Temo guy has entered from the wrong side, and no one can go anywhere! I am sitting behind the white car, clicking my camera and trying to pass time.

Dam le le ghari bhar musafir Jaayega Kahan?

The bus and the motorcycle guy both are on the wrong side. The guy in grey Santo (on the right) finally started getting angry and twisted his wheels to block the motorcycle guy. I try to stay cool by switching on the AC for a short while, but then switch it off, after all how much petrol can I burn, sitting in this gridlock? By now I am getting late for the office but no one really bothers you here, and I anyway rarely get late, so no major hassels for me.

The cap that we all are waiting for is finally visible. Fron nowhere this guy in uniform materializes and it raises our hope that finally things will start moving.

The guy in the bule shirt pleaded with the traffic police to get him out of the jam first, but the cop said he had to wait just for a while, there was a big bus obstructing his side and it will take some time to sort it out. The guy immdeiately started explaining furiously something in his cell phone. But after a short while, with the help of this angel cop, I could finally take the turn and reach my office within five minutes.

On Indian Roads Give me Cows Anyday!

Now, before you start hurling abuses at me for painting a clichéd picture of India, because of this cow talk, have a glass of water or a mug of chai (tea). And then decide for yourself.

Yesterday was a bad day. I had to teach a class. And after that when all I wanted was to do some light blog reading, Suyog sprang up such a confusing post in the name of some god forsaken movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kahna (can it be translated as ‘Do not say goodbye ever?’)

In the evening, I started driving home and everyone who could cut me off, honk at me, or flash that irritating light to declare that ‘I should move aside or else they would drive through me,’ flashed it.

The area I drive through to reach my college has a lot of factories. Hence, it is overflowing with pedestrians and cyclists (Ps&Cs). I do not blame them; they have to use the same road to reach to work, as there is no separate pathway for them. They are, in fact, forced to spill over.

But I do take an exception when they materialize out of thin air with hurtling speed, only to drop all the pretence and embark on a casual stroll past my car. All the cars anyway drive in the second gear because cyclists, motorcyclists, cars, tractors, buses, trucks, all via of space on a road that till recently had this uncanny resemblance to the surface of the moon.

My worst experience has been when two not so gentlemen decided to take a stroll in front of my car. I crawled behind them for a while, without honking and when they still showed no sign of moving, I casually leaned on the horn. You are probably familiar with the noise that results from casually leaning on the horn. But the not so gentlemen seemed to be stone deaf.

Now here was I, leaning casually on my horn and trying to drive at a speed to suit the guys crawling in front of me. There was no space to move a car anywhere else on the surface of moon. A fraction of second later, the front tires of my car made a slight contact with one of the guys.

I found myself suddenly leaning on the breaks too. The guy glared at me. I pointed out the ample space available on the left hand side of the road, away from any cars and the fact that I had been honking since an hour! The gentleman finally moved aside along with his friend and probably saw the logic of not walking in front of a car. He was not hurt and nobody picked up a fight with me.

But when I reached office and had time to reflect, I was so unhappy, constructing various scenarios where the injury could have been more serious to the guy that by the evening, I was depressed and had a splitting headache. Thankfully, they have re-constructed that road and this turned out to be a one off incident. I still meet Ps&Cs in regular force everyday, but there are a few inches more to maneuver. Still, I am totally ashamed of the way things turned out that day and my part in it.

I do not have any major grudges against the motorcyclists apart from their habit of overtaking me from the wrong side. That and trying to give me heart attacks. The smallest bit of spaces between a bus and a SUV is an invitation to them to try and squeeze past. My heart has developed this uncomfortable tendency of doing small little flips in tandem with their maneuvers.

Cars, in this area drive in the second gear and I think we have a friendly feeling toward each other. But come evening when the roads are just a little bit more empty, everyone is so fond of pulling the lights to indicate ‘move aside or I will drive through you.

A special category of vehicles is the call centre cabs (buses and trucks behave similarly) and I always make way for them, no problem. I know they are in a hurry. Still, they have a penchant to keep coming straight for me. Now I am faced with a choice to move an inch on the other side and knock off a few Ps&Cs (who seem to be completely oblivious of everything around) or continue as before and get hit by the cab or the bus or the truck.

My usual response is to freeze completely. Later, when I open my eyes it seems somehow, at the last moment, that cab or bus or truck had swing away from me. And the cyclists and pedestrians are still on their legs and cycles, in the same state- oblivion.

Now compare this with cows! They are so well behaved. They do not materialize out of thin air. They are big and they make themselves seen clearly. They are in no hurry to cross that road. They amble past royally, giving you enough time to react.

They are solidly built. At low speeds, if any contact is made, it is my car that is going to get damaged. On the other hand, the mere whisper of a contact with those Ps&Cs leaves me shivering and cold and ill.

The cow does no heart-attack inducing maneuvers. The cow may block my way, but it does not ‘keep coming at me’ at high speeds to turn away at the last moment. Car horn produces a better effect on Cows than the Ps&Cs walking in front of my car. I also like the way cows divide the responsibility of avoiding a contact 50-50. With Ps&Cs, it seems to be solely my responsibility, 200%.

So, why not? Give me cows any day, they are much better behaved and have better sense of self-preservation and avoiding accidents than some other creatures, I meet on the road.