March 12, 2004

speed bumps and blind corners

back home, we live so far from the edge that you need binoculars. in india you're so close you get vertigo. the only option is to give in to the chaos, and nowhere more so than on the road:



- in india, the notion of a 'speed bump' has been interpreted to mean a place where one should speed even more excessively, a point most excellently demonstrated by our bus driver from the ajunta caves this afternoon

- there is surely no indian word for 'blind corner'. why should going uphill around a hairpin corner with sheer cliffs looming on both sides prevent one slow bus from trying to overtake another slightly slower bus?

- 'oncoming traffic' is not something to dissuade overtaking, but merely competition for road space. there is a truck in front and a team of cow-drawn carts coming the other way. there is clearly no opportunity to overtake. but.... we overtake anyway. just sit tight and somehow it'll all work out.

sitting tight in Jalgon tonight. waiting for the morning train, trying to let go and be saved by chaos

Posted by Andrew Wallace @ 6:52 PM