Moment: August 21st, 2019 at 8:01 AM "Make sure you're riding on the right side!"
"Wait, I thought it was the left side?"
"Yeah you're right, left"
Taxiwalas are integral contributors to the Hyderabadi lifestyle, so much so that they are distinguished with yellow license plates rather than the conventional white. Not many people actually drive, so public transport, auto-rickshaws, and rideshare apps such as Uber and Ola are what keep this city going. As someone who is used to having her own car to get everywhere but would never have the guts to even attempt to drive in these parts (one of my worst nightmares is coming back to America and accidentally driving on the left side), I am immensely grateful for what these people do.
It’s a completely different thing to be an Uber driver in the US versus being an Uber driver in India. As in America, India has lanes, there are police officers, and there are stoplights. But unlike in America, there are also buffalos and camels, vehicles driving in the opposite direction of traffic, vendors weaving between cars, and people crossing the street literally anywhere because there are no crosswalks. One of my tour guides said that we may have rush hour in America, but India has rush day.
It takes an insurmountable amount of both survival instinct and skill to get from point A to point B. They say that if you can drive in India, you can drive anywhere, which was definitely proven by my dad, who is literally one of the best drivers I know. Here in India, my friend Kripalini could probably be a stunt driver with the way she weaves in and out of traffic and ALWAYS wins a "friendly" bike race.
I once had an Uber driver take me on a 4.7 km detour on a dirt “road” through giant rocks and wooded areas to get around a marathon taking place on my university’s campus, during which we had to start and stop the car six times because it kept stalling due to the rocky terrain and wait 10 minutes for a herd of water buffalo to trudge past while cranes flew dangerously close to the roof of our car. We were almost sideways at a couple points, the underside of the sedan scraped on countless bushes and shrubs, and when we finally got to an actual asphalt road, we both exhaled a huge sigh of relief (I didn’t even realize I was holding my breath) then the driver turned around and said “sorry about that madam.” What a guy.
Because of the high variability of what you might encounter on the roads (do I sound like a driver’s ed video narrator yet?) most people choose to ride a motorbike so they can more easily maneuver through the traffic. There's even UberMoto and OlaBikes now, so you can zip through the city for much cheaper than a car or an auto. My mom drove a bike when she was in high school and college, and my aunt now rides one while wearing a sari every day to work like an absolute boss. Meanwhile, I just pose and take pictures next to them.
The people of India have a lot of faith in this system, and I’ve come to learn that it is indeed a very organized chaos, because the people tend to self-police. There’s no speed limit because people drive as slowly as necessary, and I have not seen a SINGLE accident in my entire time here, not even so much as a scrape as an auto rickshaw squeezes between two massive lorries. Not many people have back-up cameras or automated stops in their cars, but they drive very defensively and are extremely spatially aware. The roads might seen chaotic and unorganized, but it’s far from a lawless land.
