Saturday, February 12, 2005
Driving in Bangalore.
We now move onto the perils of driving in Bangalore. Here're a few :
- Big dirty looking buses and trucks trying to inch forward and occupying the entire road. Try overtaking them but they're so busy trying to go uphill they don't care. Or if you try overtaking from the left you'll see several sleepy cyclists or pedestrians ambling along on the left. Risk it at your well, own risk !!
- Mini-buses - what're these anyway ? "Relics-of-the-raj" is more like it. They're so beaten down that they refuse to move out of the way. There's either no horsepower or the bus's so full or maybe the steering is stuck coz of the weight !! I'll post a snap someday ....
- Over zealous Qualis'es/Sumos. These are usually white in color and will do anything to get ahead of you. Reason - they are "contracted" by the BPOs (all dutifully driving the Indian economy) and need to reach the sleepy-heads inside on time failing which the BPO will cancel his contract.
Their favorite approach is as detailed below :
- identify target to overtake
- put on indicator - mind you this should be done from your blind spot
- you'll see the indicator only when the Qualis or Sumo is just a hair's breadth away (either on the left or on the right)
- At which time you can honk all you can but the driver does'nt care - he has enough first mover advantage to get ahead leaving you honking your poor horn ...
Wonder where they teach 'em these tricks....
More later .... there's a lot ahead folks. Stay tuned.
- Big dirty looking buses and trucks trying to inch forward and occupying the entire road. Try overtaking them but they're so busy trying to go uphill they don't care. Or if you try overtaking from the left you'll see several sleepy cyclists or pedestrians ambling along on the left. Risk it at your well, own risk !!
- Mini-buses - what're these anyway ? "Relics-of-the-raj" is more like it. They're so beaten down that they refuse to move out of the way. There's either no horsepower or the bus's so full or maybe the steering is stuck coz of the weight !! I'll post a snap someday ....
- Over zealous Qualis'es/Sumos. These are usually white in color and will do anything to get ahead of you. Reason - they are "contracted" by the BPOs (all dutifully driving the Indian economy) and need to reach the sleepy-heads inside on time failing which the BPO will cancel his contract.
Their favorite approach is as detailed below :
- identify target to overtake
- put on indicator - mind you this should be done from your blind spot
- you'll see the indicator only when the Qualis or Sumo is just a hair's breadth away (either on the left or on the right)
- At which time you can honk all you can but the driver does'nt care - he has enough first mover advantage to get ahead leaving you honking your poor horn ...
Wonder where they teach 'em these tricks....
More later .... there's a lot ahead folks. Stay tuned.
