Fuel, of course, tires are
important…and an engine…no motorized vehicle will motivate without a
functioning engine. But in India, no
component of the vehicle could possibly be more important to forward motion
than, yes…the Horn. Sure, in America,
we use our horns too, but, it’s different.
If someone steps off a curb in front of us, absent mindedly, we jam on
the brakes and lay on the horn, as a protest, while we’re waving our arms…and
shouting something about their mom.
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| Photo by Mark W. Laughlin |
India is different. There, when a driver sees a person, or
another car, or a cow (…or dog, or water buffalo…) moving into his path, he
taps his horn to say “…don’t do that…you
will be run over and killed, most likely by me…” It’s not a question of being angry. There doesn’t seem to be any anger in it, either
for the honker or the “honked-at”. It’s
a warning that you’re coming…it’s a conversation between drivers, or between
driver and “person-dog-buffalo-cow.”
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| Photo by Mark W. Laughlin |
Trucks and busses even
invite honking. Many tucks and most of
the “auto-rickshaws” have “Horn Please” painted on the
back. It’s an invitation, a suggestion,
to honk if you would like them to pull over a little and let you by. I’m not sure why they would paint it there,
it seems to me that ALL Indian drivers are already familiar with the system,
and are honking as a “(semi-)polite request to move over” already.
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| Photo by Mark W. Laughlin |
This honking system of
communication became known to me over my several drives through various cities
in India, but no place more clearly than standing in the Pick-Up Area at Mumbai
Airport’s Domestic Terminal. The drivers
trying to get someone to move, so they can get into the pick-up area, or honking
to get the attention of the someone they are picking up, or honking to say they
are now trying to pull back out into traffic and leave, results a cacophony
that is pretty difficult to ignore. It
even inspires some people to write about it.
;-)
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| Photo by Mark W. Laughlin |
Y'all take care,
- Mark W. Laughlin
(Sorry for the poor formatting...Blogspot is VERY frustrating at times...)
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