After a few days in India, with numerous impressions and
cultural revelations one thing is definitely for sure: The Indian traffic is
undoubtedly nuts. Alone the fact that the majority of all trucks encourage to
use “Horn Please” or “Blow horn” as written on the back of the vehicle is an
enormous contrast to the Danish culture. When we first arrived, we found the
horns offensive since we are used to being in danger or doing something wrongly
when horns are necessary. The reality is strictly the opposite. Honking in Indian
traffic culture is a way to let someone know you are present to avoid any
accident and actually (weirdly enough) seems to be a friendly thing and the
“noise” is now slightly comforting. We have developed acceptance and
understanding for Indian ways throughout the last couple of days.
Chaotic traffic culture
Today we lie at the pool and think: what makes this different from the culture we have been used to if you were to close your eyes. The answer is simply the excessive use of horns – the constant sound of Indians making their way through the melting pot. One would supposedly assume that you could easily escape the noise. You simply cannot. Yet our general impression is that road rage is not a known term (as we see it in Denmark). This is either because there are simply no rules to obey or the fact that many Indians possess modesty and never express anger in public. Even when they have to pay road tax every 30 minutes to drive on a highway.
Traffic chaos – this picture emphasizes the fact that rules are non-existent in Indian traffic with the whole family on one motorcycle
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Visiting a wonder
Either way,
we visited a little humble building built by a Muslim to his wife. The
minimalistic building is also (joke aside) one the world’s seven wonders.
Nothing less than the essential Taj Mahal, which was truly magnificent and as
gigantic as the expectation. Our guide knew plenty of tricks for photographing
and even sang for us to make the whole thing even more authentic. The whole
place was extremely remote and the transportation was by electrical vehicles
within one-kilometer radius to keep the place clean. Even though the air is
like most of Indian cities - covered by a thick layer of smog that gives low
visibility further into the distance.
Abandoned city
As we
travelled further north we had several hours on the main highway (which is an
exaggeration) of what we would consider a dreadful quality. Poor infrastructure
is a hindrance for a lot of transport in India, which we can only confirm by
today's experience.
We then
visited an old abandoned city, Fatehpur Sikri that was pointed out by our Indian
guide, Tanveer since the attraction was not the average place to find. The
place was very remote and in a large scale. The architecture was beautiful and
built by Akbar, who is considered the mightiest Mughal in Indian history. It
was an overwhelmingly beautiful construction, even though the heat was immense.
Even though
the old abandoned city and Taj Mahal were distinctively different, one
similarity caught our eye. Before we were able to get to the actual attraction,
we had to go a long way. In Denmark, we are used to exploiting tourist
attractions and leading the visitors to it by signs. In India, it works the
opposite way. If we had not hired a guide, we would not have been able to find
our way to the monuments. This we think reflects the way all traffic works. No
system. As explained earlier, the horns are used for many things including
signaling a turn. The roads are not divided into lanes, and there are no
guidelines of where and when to drive.
Written by
Anton, Ian & Thomas 2.L
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