After my arrival in India, during my initial days in Delhi, the incessant honking and zigzag traffic was little irritating. But it is nothing compared to what I see in Bhubaneswar, where "Auto" cracy is at its worst. They want to outsmart and out run each other in the rat race of catching the next BHADAA, the Odia term meaning rental passengers.
A taste of autocracy I got other day when the driver had to slam his break as an Auto came right in front of the car from nowhere. A hundred feet ahead we stopped at a red light. As the vehicles stopped, some bikers and the autos came from behind, snaking their way, sneaking through, filling the narrow gaps. This recalcitrant auto stood next to me.
I rolled over the window to chastise this moron, KANA MARIBA KU PRABALA ICHHAA (have you got a tremendous death wish) ? The guy had no remorse. He bent to spew red spit on the ground and grinned back to me to my chagrin exposing his black betel stained teeth like the snarl of a rabid dog.
As he sped away, he spewed some venom at me. It was drowned by the high decibel traffic, but from his lip movement I knew he wasn't saying praiseworthy things about me. I promptly reciprocated with my lip movement of praiseworthy stuff for him as a thank you note, with my message conveyed, inaudible but effective.
There's hardly any designated Pedestrian or Zebras crossing in Bhubaneswar. You have to tip toe and sway your hips, waving and clenching hands like an eunuch towards the incoming traffic to cross the road. Road crossing is an art and one needs to be a trapeze artist to cross roads at crossroads of Bhubaneswar. More later...
A taste of autocracy I got other day when the driver had to slam his break as an Auto came right in front of the car from nowhere. A hundred feet ahead we stopped at a red light. As the vehicles stopped, some bikers and the autos came from behind, snaking their way, sneaking through, filling the narrow gaps. This recalcitrant auto stood next to me.
I rolled over the window to chastise this moron, KANA MARIBA KU PRABALA ICHHAA (have you got a tremendous death wish) ? The guy had no remorse. He bent to spew red spit on the ground and grinned back to me to my chagrin exposing his black betel stained teeth like the snarl of a rabid dog.
As he sped away, he spewed some venom at me. It was drowned by the high decibel traffic, but from his lip movement I knew he wasn't saying praiseworthy things about me. I promptly reciprocated with my lip movement of praiseworthy stuff for him as a thank you note, with my message conveyed, inaudible but effective.
There's hardly any designated Pedestrian or Zebras crossing in Bhubaneswar. You have to tip toe and sway your hips, waving and clenching hands like an eunuch towards the incoming traffic to cross the road. Road crossing is an art and one needs to be a trapeze artist to cross roads at crossroads of Bhubaneswar. More later...
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