The shortcut that wasn't: Evidence of a lack of civilization

Well that was a nice honeymoon while it lasted!

You know those days on a college campus during the summer, or better yet, between semesters when not everyone's on campus? How incredible it feels for those few days? You get parking quite easily. No lines at the food court. No flooding of the streets on the hour. Well, we got to experience that this past week on a grander scale. A bunch of Punekars had gone home for Diwali (which probably means they weren't Punekars to being with) and that brought a bunch of unexpected (for me) benefits. The parking lot at work was less than half full, the restaurants around work had no waiting and the roads to work were empty. Sadly I'd gotten really used to the last part and took it for granted. So when I saw the traffic backed up in front of my office in the evening, it was a rude shock.

I had my shortcut that avoided the big roads, so I didn't mind at first. My shortcut avoids the main roads and is a little longer but faster. But right as I got to the last big traffic light in the downtown-type area, I realized there was a power cut there. And that meant no power for the traffic lights either. In the US when the traffic lights go out, people behave like at a four-way stop sign. But here it was quickly deteriorated into a right of the might. An auto had got stuck in the intersection and everyone has locked themselves into a right pattern all around it. And it was tight - I could have gotten off my two-wheeler without its kickstand and it wouldn't have fallen to the ground. People were just going crazy! Honking, shouting. No one would step back to allow the other person to leave. Everyone wanted to get theirs first. It was a glimpse of what was hinted at in Nightfall.

After 15 minutes of waiting I decided to get creative and got on the wrong side of the road. Big mistake. Normally this is standard practice and the oncoming traffic accepts and forgives your transgression. But here, since the traffic was tight everywhere, the small shoulder on the side of the road has disappeared. I had to wait while people ahead of me, facing me, ultimately got frustrated and gave way. And then I'd move on the next guy who wouldn't budge and stare him down. This went on for a long time. I turned off my engine and kept pushing Sasha through the traffic. I just couldn't switch over to the correct side of the road because of the divider in the middle. A bunch of about 14 scooters has decided to follow by example and were trailing me. Some picked up their motorcycles on to the sidewalk and started driving on that. I eventually got stuck between a car and the sidewalk and after realizing I could easily start denting his car, the driver moved out. Finally after another 20 minutes of pushing, I found a gap in the divider and made it through.

Lesson learned. It's just not worth it being stuck in traffic like that.