Described by another as being very much like and aquarium..... all the fishes go, and manage to get there without bumping into each other, but it looks like utter chaos. "Lane discipline" as they call it is virtually nonexistent, even in the rare occasion that there are lines. It's not uncommon for cars to be mere inches away from each other. When cars do settle to a stop for one reason or another, the gaps between the cars are quickly filled in by the constant swarm of mopeds, motorcycles, and three-wheelers.
for the past week and a half, my driver's name has been Jagadish, pronounced so quickly that sometimes it sounds like Jignesh. For the first week, he wore all white, the second week he wore what looks like acid-washed jeans, but still the same white shirt(and very possibly the same white shirt day after day).
I spent at minimum an hour a day with him, 30 minutes in to work, and 30 minutes back to the hotel. Likely another hour with him as he carted me around for lunch, between buildings, shopping etc.
The little white car is called an Indica. 4 doors, small trunk, right hand drive, I think it was 5 speeds, but I don't know if he really even used 4th gear. I think it's 2 cylinders but am not sure. I think the max speed that we ever reached wasn't much higher than 60km/hr.
He wasn't a bad singer, and I didn't mind the hindi music that he would listen to from time to time. I had a considerable amount of trust in him in that I would often sleep on the way into the office, and sleep on the way home after my exhausted days..... or not, because likely if you are reading this, then you know I'm capable of sleeping in just about any situation.
tonight as thursday night was my last night with him... he is going to his hometown tomorrow and I'll be getting someone different as a driver. We were coming back from a mall from me attempting to do some shopping, and he was driving slightly more aggressive than usual, but... as you know my driving habits a little bit, I didn't mind a bit.
I saw it start, but as it has been well over a week of being used to lots of swerving, honking, and filling in of holes, it was nothing really different. This time it was 2 buses. Jagadish was driving a bit more on the aggressive side... darting in and our, closing gaps... being even more generous with the horn than usual. I thought I saw a smile cracked on his face a couple times as he was busting some crazy moves in traffic, and it meant that I was going to get back to my room a little faster so I had nothing to object to.
2 large buses were side by side for a while, and then staggered... Jagadish was behind one, and apparently the road was going to narrow, so he was hugging the back bumper of one while the one on the left started to give way. The driver of the bus, in typical form, honked his horn to signal that he was there, and was expecting Jagadish to give way. In response, Jagadish honked his horn repeatedly and maintained his position. This horn bantering went on for about 5-10 seconds as a game of chicken seemed to be evolving, with a large bus in front, us in the small white car, and another bus trying to squeeze in from the right. Eventually, Jagadish gave way, and dropped back, letting the bus on the right merge in behind the other bus. Jagadish, also in typical form, found a couple holes as darted forward, filling in a gap as traffic continued to flow.
After about 30 seconds, apparently Jagadish managed to squeeze his way ahead of the bus which we had the horn altercation with. The bus was following closely, but not something that was immediately noticeable as traffic was crawling at about 10-15km/hr. But I noticed the demeanor of Jagadish's driving had changed. There were gaps in front of us that weren't aggressively being closed. There was a gap to our left where an occasional 2-wheeler would squirt past the bus, and traffic was flowing a little bit faster than us on the right. Jagadish was also driving a bit nervously... looking back into his rear view mirror every few seconds. I glimpsed backwards angularly, not wanting to be blinded by the headlights behind, and did notice that the bus was in close proximity, but again, we weren't moving that fast so it wasn't something out of the ordinary.
This continued on for about 3-4 minutes with traffic continuing to flow around us. I was contemplating saying something to him, but I'm the stranger here... and maybe they do things differently.
Nope.
all the sudden a guy appears on the passenger side, and starts yelling at Jagadish... followed by another guy on the drivers side, yelling at him.... the guy from the left side comes around to the right side and joins in the yelling. there is some yelling back and forth and for some reason Jagadish rolls down his window and a shove comes through... then another... more yelling and the guys disappear behind the car. Jagadish gets out of the car and pops the trunk open...
I'm sitting tight.... I had heard that altercations like this happen where the drivers get out, gesture at each other, shout and curse, and then end up getting back into their respective vehicles and drive away.
I turn around as Jagadish rummages through the trunk and pulls something out as the two guys are near the bus behind us.... Jagadish pulls something out and holds it over his head as he is going to swing it down in an aggressive manner. there are no apparently 4 people out of the bus, but not the bus driver.... apparently all these people were really pissed that Jagadish was holding up traffic.
There is some scuffling as the altercation moved to the side of the road. No one is really grappled to the road, but it is clear that it is a 2 on 1. No real punches are thrown, but people are jockying for position, and grappling with each other. What I thought(or would have expected in the states) to be a person holding a phone, trying to call the police was actually a guy holding his phone so that he could get the action recorded on his camera-phone. Along the way, someone came up to the car and pulled the car keys out of the ignition! At this point, I wasn't sure what the heck to do... was my driver even going to be alive in the next 5 minutes?
this lasted for about 2 minutes, when a guy wearing a police vest showed up and continued into the shouting and finger pointing mix. I noticed that the other bus pulled up along side the one behind us, had its door open, and there was yelling and screaming out of that bus as well. Being that the road wasn't that wide, the two buses parallel effectively stopped all traffic on the road.
I wasn't sure what to do. They certainly weren't paying any attention to me, which was a good thing as far as I was concerned, but the health and safety of my driver and my subsequent ability to get back to my hotel was an item of concern. I was a stranger in a strange land, unsure of what to do, what to say... so I stayed put. I wasn't sure what benefits the security of this little car would provide me, but I certainly didn't need to willfully give it up.
The finger pointing and yelling continued with the presence of the police officer, until what I think happened is the buses started to move. all of the people who got off took notice of this fact, and as much as I think they wanted to have it out with my driver, they too wanted to go wherever they were headed, and ran to jump on the bus.
With his assailants gone, Jagadish, shirt open, returned to the trunk and put the jack back into the car. At this time I asked him if he was ok, which he nodded in response to, and then I told him "someone took the car keys." He closed up the trunk, came around the side of the car, and saw that the keys were missing. At which point, he ran after the bus and hopped on it!
great.... here I am ... alone, in a car, with no driver and no keys... so I'm watching the bus... hoping that he can get his keys back.
about 100-150yds down the road I see Jagadesh hop out of the bus and walk back to the car..... with the keys in hand.... whew
He gets back in... settles himself, starts the car and off we go.
5 minutes later, we pull into the front of the hotel with him apologizing profusely for the situation. I ask him for the paper that I need to sign, and then for him to get out of the car so that I can take a picture(above). I thank him for his help for the past couple of weeks, give him a cash gift, and he's on his way.
I'll seriously be surprised if I see Jagadesh again.... 1 in a country of 1B people. He saved me untold time in his taking of various backroads and short cuts, and a real thrill to be in the car with as he zips around the streets of Bangalore. and my experience with him certainly ended wit ha bang.
Bangalore is a crazy interesting place.. .and this is just one of the crazy experiences of this trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment