I have been in India for one week now! I am so busy with work meetings that by the time evening comes I just want to go to sleep. Nonstop meetings and trips since I landed. India seems to have the same way. Everything is busy! The roads, the sidewalks, the restaurants, hotels, etc. Now there is a difference between being busy and actually doing something valuable. I remember the line from the Christmas Vacation movie where Griswold’s wife says “He works real hard dad” and her grumpy dad says “So do washing machines.” But that is a topic for another day.
I think the biggest thing hitting me is that I am going to live in traffic gridlock for the next 3 years. Unless I want to do something before 8:30am, I am going to be stuck in traffic. They say rush hour is 8:30-10:30 and after 5pm but that means that you literally will be stopped for 5-10 mins at a time. If you go in the middle of the day you will stop for 3-5 mins at a time and rarely go above 25mph. Yesterday it took New Raj and me an hour to go 6 miles in the middle of the day. Why is traffic so bad? First of all there are over 7 million people in Pune and they just couldnt build roads and infrastructure fast enough (They still can’t). Second, the roads are not really preplanned — for example some intersections have as many as 6-7 roads that feed in to them — yes thats right imagine navigating that. Oh and did I mention some people will drive the wrong way down the road? Which leads me to my third point — rules of the road are really more guidelines here not rules. Red and green lights MAY be followed by the cars but not the scooters, bikers, and pedestrians. Fourth – there is so much construction most roads have been narrowed. There is a big build being done for a Pune metro line that should be finished right when we head back to the states…JOY! We get to put up with all the delays before we get to use the metro itself.
As always you can CHOOSE your attitude and rather than be pissed and impatient I choose to see the positives. What other urban center in the western world can you take an hour drive through the city and see a camel eating a tree branch, a cow being milked, people selling trash, people driving the wrong way, and 5 year old kids walking on tightropes between two posts 8 feet above the ground?? Those of you that know me know I love absolute random stuff and find it humorous so always look at the bright side of your life!
I got a chance to take some pictures from the car as well as a hotel free tasting buffet and a mall next to the hotel. For those of you that know Pune, the JW Mariott will be my temporary home for the next couple of months as I continue to commute from Medford.
Richey's Travel Adventures 