Transtion Blues #11: My Driving Lessons

Yes.. I am learning driving in India. It has been a scary and amusing experience till now. Contarary to popular belief there are rules to Indian driving. I am sharing some of the ones I am learning along the way.

1. You HONK. Honking is necessary and expected. If you hit a pedestrian or a bicycle or motorbike or a Truck - you are off the hook if you had honked before telling him that you are passing him.
2. Driving is about Block Tackle - You do not want others to get ahead of you or you do not want incoming traffic to use the road. You drive to block everybody else but yourself.
1. While turning, you position, enter and then give signal. You ensure that you are not letting anybody move so that you get to turn.
3. You drive based on your gut instinct. You are interested in moving forward - from left or from right or by being in middle of the road.
1. You do not use mirrors. If you use mirrors, they will be broken by Motor-bike at signals. Normally Motorbikes come within few cm (single digits) of your car at all times
2. You do not "Look over shoulders". If you try, you will hit a bike or a person in front of you. You assume that all others will take care of themselves and you drive whatever you think is appropriate. You drive the way you see/think is fit to the situation.
3. You drive closer - I mean closer - means within 2-3 feets of car in front of you and within 1 feet of another vehicle on your left or right. You do not worry about them, you assume that they will safe and drive without worrying about any of the traffic.
   
4. Signals are 'Overloaded operators" like in C++ classes - Left turn signal means the car in front of you is turning left, but it also means you can overtake the car safely and car driver is asking you to overtake.
   
5. When in doubt, drive in middle of the road, specifically in way that your car is exactly in middle of the diving line between lanes. You can speed and nobody disturbs you because you are pushing everybody in front of you.
6. Drive Fast whenever you get chance, you can go from 0 miles (normal state) to 35 (Very fast in Pune) in 3 seconds, for few yards, then you are back to usual 2-3 miles an hour.
7. You drive on 1st gear, 2nd and may be, very rare - 3rd or 4th gear. You are lucky if you get to drive in 3rd gear for more than 15 minutes or you are driving outside pune.

I have a driving instructor , he teaches me how to block incoming traffic, how to drive closer to divider so that two wheelers will not be able to cross you. He also taught me how to honk and also teaching me driving on a crowded road i.e. crowd of 400 people at a road, buying selling in a bazar and driving through the bazar.

I will keep you posted my adventures ......