This Morning.
I really debated telling the following story on my blog all day. However, after much contemplation, I decided that it's an important and integral part of my India experience as a whole. So here goes...
There are three ways that I get to work. The first, and most common, is with my friend Shana who has a car and driver. The second is in a taxi cab. The third is in an autorikshaw - which is an open air, "buggy"-type vehicle. They sort of remind me of the Haunted Mansion cars at Disneyland and are much cooler than a cab when it's hot (the whole "no door" thing really helps). However, they are also incredibly unsafe with no doors or seatbelts - and if it rains, you're screwed. Not surprisingly, they are incredibly cheap and the most popular mode of transporation in Mumbai. For the past few days, I've been taking cabs into work because of ominous looking skies. This morning, however, the sun was shining and the clouds looked pretty mild, so I decided to take my chances in an autorikshaw. (Shana and I had some miscommunication and before I realized that she was on her way to pick me up from the hotel, I had already left.)
So, my autorik driver and I were cruising along the freeway when it started to rain. I sort of smiled, pulled my bag close to my chest, and huddled my iPod in between my bag and my body (I was listening to remix of "Candlebright" by Stevie Nicks). Certain autoriks are faster than others, and this was one of the faster ones. As we crested a hill and began to descend, the autorik started to hydroplane. I held onto the railing and waited for it to stop...only it didn't. We kept hydroplaning and then gradually started to turn to the right. As we were turning, the entire autorik started to tilt over. Eventually, we spun completely around, so that we were facing oncoming traffic. Two cars about twenty yards behind us tried to break, but one couldn't stop fast enough and smashed into our front-left side, spinning us back to our left. This caused us to slam into the other car that had been heading towards us, but was now behind us, which flung us around again such that we came to a stop facing in the correct direction on the freeway. I sat in the autorik for a few minutes, shaking, looking at all of the debris on the freeway (while the kindly morning commuters of Mumbai honked impatiently). I called Shana and asked her to pick me up on her way to work ("I'm in the autorikshaw that's not moving in the middle of the freeway - you can't miss me.") I then got out of the rik and walked to the side of the freeway where I stood shaking for a few minutes while I waited for Shana.
I wish that I could have taken a picture of this scene to show you. This one particular stretch of freeway is very busy with huge billboards advertising radio stations, Bacardi, housing developments, a clothing store called "Millionaire", and various other things. This is also the stretch of freeway where people who work on the roads sleep at night in little tarp huts. So here I am in my purple dress shirt, standing at the side of the road amongst these little huts, tar, and trash. It starts to rain and I go to put up my umbrella, but it's so windy that the umbrella is useless. At this point, I felt so many different emotions - part of me wanted to laugh hysterically, part of me wanted to cry, and part of me felt very sorry for myself. And then I realized that the autorikshaw driver (who I'd pretty much forgotten about), was screwed. His rik was dead - parts strewn about all over the freeway. This left him with no way to make money for the rest of the day (at a time when he probably needed it most to get his rik fixed). This realization jolted me out of feeling sorry for myself. I went over to him and gave him quite a bit of money...and told him to drive carefully. I'm not going to elaborate on this particular moment much - I'm sure you can imagine the intensity and significance of it.
Needless to say, I'm okay. It was scary, I was scared, but I'm okay.
Mom and Dad, I'm not going to take autorikshaws anymore.
Another day in India...
Goodnight Everyone.
I really debated telling the following story on my blog all day. However, after much contemplation, I decided that it's an important and integral part of my India experience as a whole. So here goes...
There are three ways that I get to work. The first, and most common, is with my friend Shana who has a car and driver. The second is in a taxi cab. The third is in an autorikshaw - which is an open air, "buggy"-type vehicle. They sort of remind me of the Haunted Mansion cars at Disneyland and are much cooler than a cab when it's hot (the whole "no door" thing really helps). However, they are also incredibly unsafe with no doors or seatbelts - and if it rains, you're screwed. Not surprisingly, they are incredibly cheap and the most popular mode of transporation in Mumbai. For the past few days, I've been taking cabs into work because of ominous looking skies. This morning, however, the sun was shining and the clouds looked pretty mild, so I decided to take my chances in an autorikshaw. (Shana and I had some miscommunication and before I realized that she was on her way to pick me up from the hotel, I had already left.)
So, my autorik driver and I were cruising along the freeway when it started to rain. I sort of smiled, pulled my bag close to my chest, and huddled my iPod in between my bag and my body (I was listening to remix of "Candlebright" by Stevie Nicks). Certain autoriks are faster than others, and this was one of the faster ones. As we crested a hill and began to descend, the autorik started to hydroplane. I held onto the railing and waited for it to stop...only it didn't. We kept hydroplaning and then gradually started to turn to the right. As we were turning, the entire autorik started to tilt over. Eventually, we spun completely around, so that we were facing oncoming traffic. Two cars about twenty yards behind us tried to break, but one couldn't stop fast enough and smashed into our front-left side, spinning us back to our left. This caused us to slam into the other car that had been heading towards us, but was now behind us, which flung us around again such that we came to a stop facing in the correct direction on the freeway. I sat in the autorik for a few minutes, shaking, looking at all of the debris on the freeway (while the kindly morning commuters of Mumbai honked impatiently). I called Shana and asked her to pick me up on her way to work ("I'm in the autorikshaw that's not moving in the middle of the freeway - you can't miss me.") I then got out of the rik and walked to the side of the freeway where I stood shaking for a few minutes while I waited for Shana.
I wish that I could have taken a picture of this scene to show you. This one particular stretch of freeway is very busy with huge billboards advertising radio stations, Bacardi, housing developments, a clothing store called "Millionaire", and various other things. This is also the stretch of freeway where people who work on the roads sleep at night in little tarp huts. So here I am in my purple dress shirt, standing at the side of the road amongst these little huts, tar, and trash. It starts to rain and I go to put up my umbrella, but it's so windy that the umbrella is useless. At this point, I felt so many different emotions - part of me wanted to laugh hysterically, part of me wanted to cry, and part of me felt very sorry for myself. And then I realized that the autorikshaw driver (who I'd pretty much forgotten about), was screwed. His rik was dead - parts strewn about all over the freeway. This left him with no way to make money for the rest of the day (at a time when he probably needed it most to get his rik fixed). This realization jolted me out of feeling sorry for myself. I went over to him and gave him quite a bit of money...and told him to drive carefully. I'm not going to elaborate on this particular moment much - I'm sure you can imagine the intensity and significance of it.
Needless to say, I'm okay. It was scary, I was scared, but I'm okay.
Mom and Dad, I'm not going to take autorikshaws anymore.
Another day in India...
Goodnight Everyone.
posted by Steven | 11:03 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Steve,
Mark Perrin sent me your way. Awesome blog, very envious of your Kerala trip...I'm dying to get down there eventually. I'm in Mumbai for work in September, only for a week...perhaps we'll meet.
Safe travels,
Billy
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