26 March 2017

Welcome to Log 24 and to a couple of new addressees who have stubbled on to my mailing list.  You may not have asked to be included in this restricted stream of consciousness and you will come off the list with an email request for same. This is number 21 in the series and the first from India and specifically Rajasthan.

My last log was written at the end of our 3 months on the road around outback Australia.  This log is coming from a different kind of outback. From wide open spaces in Australia with no one around to cities of 23 million in India. We have country in Australia just like Rajasthan, it’s just that no one lives there.  Here there are villages everywhere even though the country is dry, rocky and desert like.

India overwhelms the senses and there is so much to share so I will break these emails into two or three for the time we have left in India.

History of 3500 years.

Thirteen years of high school gave me a good understanding of the history of Australia, Britain, a bit of Asia, and maybe Europe and USA.  Nothing covered the 3,500 years of Indian history. Our tour guide is determined to fix this gap in our education in just 2 weeks.  So far I am aware Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the big three of thousands of Hindu gods.  We have seen many forts, or castles in the European context and now have a bit of an understanding of all the invasions the Indian continent has gone through these past 2,000 years, the final one being by the British.

Bike Riding

Insanity helps if you want to ride the streets of old Udaipur. The roads are about the width of one car which is not helpful when two cars meet.  There are no footpaths and there is a deep gutter of each side of the road, flowing with a septic mix of who knows what.  You are on a bike and there are people, kids, tuk tuks, cars, and the odd cow which will have an attitude.  It’s mayhem, there are no rules except everyone accepts the situation is chaotic.  The locals smile at you and the kids call out.  Heading in one direction is fine until you have to turn across the traffic at an intersection. It then gets even more overwhelming.  You are trying to work out the rules (there are none) or maybe a pattern to the traffic (there isn’t one).  You think there will be a gap (there won’t be one) or maybe someone will stop for you (they won’t).  You then realise you are on your own, surrounded by thousands.  You have no choice but to get on your bike and ride across the flow of traffic. Just go!  You reach the other side and realise you have probably just achieved new level of enlightenment and so you feel the need to say Om several times.

I forgot to mention the tooting of horns and cacophony that means conversation with your fellow riders is out of the question.

We survived and will tell our grandchildren about the time we rode bikes in India.

Road Works

Amazing, it happens in the traffic.  There are no diversions, no traffic cones, no signs warning you that there are road works ahead.  There are no flashing lights or people with stop/ go signs.   The traffic just flows around the machine laying the bitumen and the rollers compressing the new roadway.  And no one is flustered or upset, it just works.

Cement

Indians love cement.  I have never seen so many signs advertising different brands of cement.  There is: Wonder Cement, Ultra Cement,  Shree Cement, Ultra Tech Cement – The Engineers Choice, Abuja Cement and of course Pro Cement.

Cement is used for pathways, roads, houses, fence posts, power poles, rendering and many more uses.  Sure, sounds like what we use cement for, but in India there are many stores in every village selling cement.

There are however no cement trucks.  It’s all mixed on site by hand, even multi story buildings.

Class System

It is very deeply part of Indian social structures.  The newspapers reported a politician would not get off a plane for 30 minutes after it had landed because he had to fly business class.  He then slapped a member of the cabin crew with a slipper 25 times.  No, not 24 or 26 times, the paper reported 25 times.

Our coach has a crew of three.  The driver, the guide and a person referred to as the helper.  After 5 days of travelling together we asked the guide what was the helper’s name?  A reasonable question since we saw this guy every time we got on and off the bus.  The guide had to ask his name even though they had been sitting together the whole time of the trip.  He was after all just the helper.

Load limits

There are none.  We saw a dump truck with well over 50 tonnes of marble in the back probably close to 75 tonnes.

Safety Rules

There are none.  Building roads, working on power poles, running machinery, climbing scaffolding there are no rules.  This is Asia.

That’s it for the moment.  As always if you don’t want this stuff please say so and you will see no more.  Any other feedback would be appreciated.