49/ 100 Scooter Row Dog
Where’s Ganesha when you need him?
Whilst I absolutely love India there are certainly some things about it that drive me absolutely nuts. These are usually things that are annoying or dangerous and, importantly, don’t have to be either of those things if people applied a little common sense.
Perhaps the thing that really gets my goat are the scooters and motorbikes, particularly in the narrow streets of Varanasi. Above the ghats is an intricate maze of very tightly organised little pathways. The lane in the photograph above is actually quite wide and most of them are much narrower, barely big enough for two people to walk by each other; or for a person and a cow to pass shoulder to hairy shoulder.
Despite the minimal dimensions of this rabbit warren of lanes they are still used as roads for motorbikes. It really is ridiculous. At times we will be walking along, completely jammed together with other pedestrians, just trying to get to a shop or cafe on a pathway where there is barely enough room, and a motorbike will zoom up behind, blaring its horn until the sea of people part and let it squeeze through. And I really do mean squeeze – you absolutely will get the end of a handlebar in your bum at some point. The bikes simply will not ever wait.
There are many accidents and even deaths. I have written before about a local cafe owner whose son was playing in the path outside and was killed by a speeding motorbike. The local people themselves seem quite irate about the whole thing, but then even they themselves ride scooters right to their front door.
One particularly hot and tiring day we were trying to get back to our apartment and the lane ahead was completely blocked at a narrow point by two bikes. They were nose to nose and neither could back up because more and more bikes and pedestrians kept arriving from behind, squeezing into all the gaps like grains of sand in a jar of pebbles. Despite there clearly being no way through, all the bikes at the back were beeping their horns in a deafening chorus as if that was magically going to cure the situation.
Right behind me was a particularly young chap on a motorbike. I couldn’t move forward even a centimetre but he was actually pushing up against the back of my legs with his front wheel to try and get past. I was extremely annoyed. I turned and glared at him in the hope that he would get the picture but he nudged me again whilst I was actually looking at him.
Even though I am definitely not the violent type my anger intensified and I turned to Fiona and said that if he did that one more time I was going to punch him in the face. Then an older Indian gentleman who was stood next to me turned round and shouted something in Hindi to the young lad and he immediately backed off, looking very sheepish. I was a little surprised and asked the guy what he said – apparently he had said that he had better stop being an idiot because the tourist was getting very, very angry.
So why does today’s title mention Ganesha? Ganesha is the hugely popular elephant God. He is the remover of obstacles and the Lord of Wisdom and I really think that the folk that ride their bikes along these labyrinthine lanes really need to take heed of some of his teachings. Meditation was invented in India – perhaps some people there need to practice it a bit more to instil some calm and patience.
