I think that Indians have the most fantastic driving skills of citizens of any other country. Reflexes like theirs are hard to cultivate anywhere else. I really believe that if you can successfully drive on an Indian road, you can drive almost anywhere else in the world. Sure, they don't always follow traffic laws (okay, so they never do)--no speed limits, overtaking from the right and the left, driving on the wrong side of the road--and sure, most Indians have fake licenses/licenses gotten from bribing agents...but just the fact that someone has driven on the road in India and hasn't died or run someone else over is something to really sit back and marvel at for people like me, who stress out in traffic jams in America. Just the other day, I sat on the back of the scooter my cousin was driving as she navigated through a jam in Ahmedabad--we had to get to the other side of a two-lane road to turn, and there were generally about 6-7 vehicles side by side, with one scooter-driver's foot right next to a rickshaw wheel. It made me wonder how many people have had their feet run over here.
In the past 3 days, my dad, sister, and I along with my dad's friend took a driver and went to different towns all over Saurashtra, the western region of Gujarat. We rented a large van, and driving in a large vehicle in India takes an amazing amount of skill. Here are some things I learned:
First of all, you must learn to share the road with jay-walkers, rikshaws, scooters, trucks, other cars, cows, bison, donkeys, sheep (and all their various herders), stray dogs, women carrying enormous loads on their heads, and much more.
Second of all, no matter how many lanes there are, always drive in the middle of the road. So, if there are 2 lanes (one going one way, the other going the other way), drive on the middle line. That way, you can pass a slow moving vehicle that's driving to the left of you, or a faster car can pass you from the right.
Thirdly, the horn is your friend. All trucks have some form of "Horn OK Please" written on the back of them. Just honk, they'll move to the left, and you can pass them quickly! This rule doesn't just apply to trucks--honk at anything and everything in the way. Even if nothing is in the way, when in doubt, honk--for instance, if someone is walking on the side of the road in front of your car, just honk a couple times-that way, they know that this really isn't the time to jay-walk. Of course, this is only the case on highways. On some local roads, the more you honk, the more a riskhaw or scooter will try to drive in front of you at an unbearably slow speed.
Find the "Horn OK Please" or "Blow OK Horn" slogan in the picture!
Finally, don't be scared, even if your driver is driving the wrong way on a one-way road. Really, there's no such thing as a one-way road--even if there is a truck coming straight at you at full-speed, the driver will surely move to one side somehow, even if it's only a couple seconds before the truck would have hit your car!
I'm telling you, it's all in the reflexes.
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