The Streets of India

I am in India to visit my son, who is here on business for his company. He has been a fine host, as we have visited many famous sites, including of course, the Taj Mahal. I’ll get to those in a later post, but first I have to attempt to give you a mental picture of what travelling by car means in India. While I have only been in the limited area between Delhi and Agra, I am assured that this is how it is pretty much throughout the country. I should point out here, that we did not attempt to drive ourselves, but relied on the skills of a man hired by my son’s company.

First, the rules. Like the knife-fight in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, there are no rules. Only suggestions, such as lane markings, speed limits, and traffic signals -- trivial nuisances that the locals just don’t have the time to be bothered with in their daily lives. There are two basic guidelines (NOT rules!): if you can get there first you have the right of way, and if you can’t get there first, but think you should, you can honk (or use it’s night-time equivalent of flashing your brights, called dipping) and, through sheer force of will, move people out of your way by the time you get there. Honking is how you get from point A to point B. We went through several busy intersections that made the Gordian knot look easy. As our driver said, to drive in India, all you need are good brakes, a good horn, and good luck!

Second, who (or what) you will share the road with. I’m not talking about the sidewalk or the area adjacent to the road, I’m talking about the actual paved, laned road. Let me give you a sampling, all of which I personally saw on the main road between Delhi and Agra (this is not some side road, but is a four-lane divided highway): cars, busses, and trucks, of course, tractors pulling farm wagons (with or without the optional bicyclist hanging on to a strap at the back of the wagon while riding his bike), bicycles, three-wheeled bikes called rickshaws, auto-rickshaws (basically a three-wheeled, covered scooter powered by what is generously called a motor), motorcycles (think swarming killer bees), and pedestrians -- both the two and four-legged varieties, including dogs, donkeys, horses (actually there seem to be limitless varieties of horse-donkey combinations), entire herds of cattle, monkeys, elephants, and camels. Obviously, not all of these travel at highway speeds, and even though most of the things that don’t have engines stay to the outside (the slow lane), navigating all this is something like a horizontal roller-coaster, complete with screaming.

With the inherent danger all of this presents, obviously safety is of prime importance. This is particularly true at night, when things REALLY get interesting. None of the engineless things have lights (remember, they’re ON the road!), and tractors, auto-rickshaws, and many trucks have no tail lights and only enough of a headlight to produce a nice, warm glow. But the trucks, at least, all have nice, polite signs on the back asking you to honk your horn (like you need to be asked!) so they’ll know you’re there (did I mention that many large trucks didn’t have side mirrors?). Aside from that, I was heartened to see that the driver of one van had the foresight to install a six inch strip of metal to his back bumper so the two people hanging out of the open back door had something to stand on while they clung to the doorframe at 40-90 clicks (kilometers per hour).

I can’t leave without a little more about auto-rickshaws. They’re like a cross between a scooter and a small golf cart, powered by a low-end moped motor. There are two bench seats, wide enough to seat two people across comfortably. Designed capacity: 4 people. Actual capacity in a real-world scenario (I SAW this!): at least 14. There were three in the front, hunched forward to allow for three more on the padded bar that runs directly behind the front seat, four in the back seat (these were ALL adults, children are NOT included in capacity calculations, they’re just stuffed in after the adults), and four more sitting half in/half out of the back window. Motorcycles are no less worthy, as I saw a family of six on one: an older child in front of the father, who was driving, another older child directly behind Dad, and Mom (sitting side-saddle, by custom) holding two smaller children (who’s holding her?) as Dad expertly navigates traffic. Thank goodness HE’S wearing a helmet (sometimes – remember the rules thing).

Church Semiannual Conference

Each year, our church holds two general conferences, one in April and one in October. Members are given the opportunity to sustain church leaders, selected leaders share inspirational messages with the members, and the prophets and apostles give counsel and direction. This conference, there were many messages that increased my knowledge or strengthened my testimony of the Lord. I’ll focus on just one, however – given by Pres. Dieter Uchdorf, Second Counselor to the Prophet, and one of three members of the First Presidency of the Church.
He related the story of a time when several of the brethren in his ward were attempting to move a grand piano from the stand in the chapel to the cultural hall (a multi-purpose room, usually with a stage and a basketball court, and separated from the chapel by a large curtain so that it can be used as an overflow area for the chapel, if needed). The piano had to be lifted down from the stand to the chapel floor, navigated over the pews, and finally placed in the cultural hall. After repeated failed attempts to arrange the brethren so as to be able to lift and balance it for its journey, one of the brethren simply suggested that they “stand close together and lift where they stand”. This proved to be effective, and the piano was moved without further delay.
Pres. Uchdorf then used this concept as a template for our service in the church. Sometimes the Lord will give us tasks that seem very challenging. But if we are united, both with Him and with those with whom we serve, and we do our part, great things can be accomplished. He pointed out that we don’t have to hold or aspire to high office to be doing the Lord’s work. In fact, looking to be something we are not (not lifting where we stand) only diminishes our efforts in the assignment we currently have, and each assignment is valuable in its own right.
As I said, there were many inspirational messages. If you have an interest, they can be found at the following site: www.lds.org