on the road

haystack on wheels - not the biggest we encountered


Nandu is amazing.
I couldn't even begin to drive here. Our sturdy Tata car gets us through some amazing scrapes.

Driving is a case of seeing a gap and going for it, and knowing the strict caste system of vehicles that establshes precedence, with lorries at the top, through vans, cars, autorickshaws, camel- and ox-drawn carts, motorbikes, bicycles, to humans. No, that should be cows first. They won't get out of the way for anyone.

The basic principle is: see a gap and go for it. Nandu navigates us through with great aplomb, just managing to dodge the vehicles, the donkey carts, camel trains, tractors with haystacks two lanes wide on them, herds of goats, herds of sheep, autorickshaws stopped in the middle of the road for a chat, puppies without any road sense, people with less, placid groups of cows chewing the cud, giggling gaggles of schoolkids, broken down lorries (usually right in the middle of the village high street), potholes, dogs flat out in the middle of the lane, abandoned roadworks, unmarked speed humps, oddly located traffic islands (but it's ok, you can go round them the wrong way), market stalls, mounds of rubbish, and more and more people.

Lane discipline is unknown. It's true some roads have a white line painted down the middle but this is purely for decoration. The same is true of zebra crossings. And everyone is honking, honking, honking. Every lorry has the phrase Horn please on the back. They want you to honk so they don't have to bother checking the rear mirrors. You honk to tell other road users you are there, honk to tell other lower caste vehicles to get out of the way, honk to say the guy in front should be going for that gap that just opened up, honk just for the fun of it. Nandu is a master of the art.