Playing Resident Evil on the road

There's a stretch of road, about a kilometer long on the way to my apt
from work. This particular stretch has big rectangular patches of
unfinished road at random. When you drive on the road, you try to
avoid these patches by swerving around them. They're not so bad that
you'll damage the scooter or hurt yourself if you drive through one of
them, but they're a nuisance nevertheless. You don't want to get
carried away and swing too much because there are other vehicles on
the road. So you end up memorizing, or trying to memorize the
locations of all the patches so you can anticipate and avoid them.
It's like playing a video game.

You know that scene in the movie "Resident Evil" where the guys are
trapped in a passageway and the lasers cut across the room and the
guys have to jump around to avoid getting chopped up? This stretch of
the road reminds me of that. And if you've seen the movie you know it
doesn't end well for the guys. It's the same here as well. After all
these patches of unfinished road, there's a big band of unfinished
road that stretches across the width of the road. And you can't avoid
it, so you end up going through it.

Game over.

Tar heels - the IIT flashback

After dinner yesterday I saw a bunch of road laying equipment on the
road near my apt. I was super thrilled that they were improving the
roads here. As I was driving by the tar mixer I felt a sudden burst of
small pain on my ankle and I had to veer off the road. Turns out the
tar was being sprayed on the road and a stray spray went in my
direction. My left leg took the most of it. My right leg got a little
on the heel. Tar on the heels.

At first I was mostly annoyed that Sasha got sprayed on and that I
would have to scrub my skin to get the tar off. But when I went home
and started the scrubbing I realized that the skin was coming off
under the tar. Not much but enough that a few minutes later it HURT
LIKE HELL. It was only a small strip, about a few mm wide and about 10
such drops, but it hurt.

The last time I got burnt that bad was in IIT when a careless
classmate in the smithy workshop took a piece of metal out of the
flame and grazed my skin with it. And that just reinforced this whole
feeling I've been having about the Pune stay being an IIT flashback.
Almost everything I'm doing here feels like I've done it back when I
went to IIT first. Bizarre.

More roads and electricity

The road from my apt to work is improving at a phenomenal rate. When I moved in, about 30% of the way was unpaved road and pretty much after crossing a certain point, it was hell to drive back to my apt. Now the roads are being worked on so fast, I can barely remember what it looked like just a few days ago. Now I think about 95% of my route is paved, the only patches being the connection from my neighborhood to the highway and the path outside work. Even the tiny roads that lead to my apt that were peppered with potholes are miraculously flat now. My estimate for the time it'll take for a super clean road from my apt to work to be ready will be way off, in the good way.

Power cuts are back. They had reached a peak before Diwali, the explanation being that they need to do this in order to ensure the Diwali days were free of power cuts. And they kept their word. The two weeks of Diwali (!) were heaven - hot water to shower in the mornings, news on TV etc. Now the power cuts are back. My neighbourhood has it back, 6am to 9am in the mornings, which means it's back the IIT system where we used to skip showers in the mornings (because it was too cold and we didn't have time to heat the water) and have them in the evenings. However I'm still thankful for my current system of laptop and data card for internet. There's the occasional frustrating day where the network speed is just horrible, but by and large it's nice to be able to browse the internet even when no one around me has power. So I can still do my morning ritual of checking my email and the news in the morning before I go to work.

The power cuts apparently last from 6am to 9am and noon to 4pm. The latter cut doesn't affect me much since I'm at work, but today I had to come home at 3pm all the way from work and I seriously considered just staying home and watching the rest of the England-India cricket match but there was no power! I just took what I needed and hauled butt to work.

Just avoided getting a ticket

It was partly my fault. Well entirely my fault.

I went to check out an electronics store on my way back from work. I wanted to see if they had an electric stove so I could start cooking. They didn't. The store was on the other side of the highway and while I used a car as a cover while crossing over to the other side, I didn't have that luxury while driving back. So I decided to just drive on the wrong side of the road. This is relatively common and there were a couple of drivers who were doing the same. The plan was to switch to the correct side after I got to the big intersection ahead.

As I reached the intersection, my side of the road (shoulder in particular) had a bunch of lorries parked there. So I kept weaving in and out of them. Suddenly through gaps between the lorries I saw a bunch of motorist talking to cops!! They were getting pulled over for jumping the red light or going the wrong way or something. Basically the police presence has increased because of the Commonwealth Youth Games in the city. So they were cracking down on bad driving. I was saved because of the lorries! So I immediately got off my scooter, turned off the engine and started pushing my scooter as I got out of the lorry maze! The cops didn't bother me. I gave the other drivers my best sympathetic gaze as I crossed the intersection, got on my bike and drove off.

I hope my luck has turned with respect to getting tickets!

Vertical vs. horizontal

In the US, we drive in lanes. You "own" the lane space in front of you and behind you in the sense that anyone shifting over to your lane in your vicinity has to (in theory) defer to you. If he is ahead of you, he has to check for your speed and position before he can shift over. If you don't "give way", then he has to wait (I'm going to assume a male driver) till you move back or ahead. In that sense, driving is a "vertical" system here, you dictate the traffic depending on which lane you occupy.

In India however, I am realizing that it's a "horizontal" system. You dictate the traffic based on how much ahead you are. Once you're ahead, you can cut left and right with impunity. Especially if you're on a two-wheeler. Did a gap just open up in front of me? Doesn't matter, because the guy to my left but a few inches ahead of me feels entitled to that spot and will take it. You don't really have a choice. So as a response I now try to position myself a little ahead of the guy driving next to me, particularly in traffic jams. It feels very barbaric to my American sensibilities but worse, I am worried about driving like that when it's time to drive in the US again.

The dust, it's everywhere

So I'm now driving with a helmet on, so my face/head is well-protected from the dust. At first I used to arrive at work tasting a lot of Pune's soil on my lips and finding dust falling from my face if I tried to pass my hand over it. Now it's much better. Now I notice my hands. I can't even step out (meaning drive 1 kilometer) for lunch without finding my hands covered in dust and soot. I have to wash my hands each time I step outside since I am usually munching on something at work. (I'm eating almost nothing for breakfast and dinner, so it's OK.)

It's particularly hard in restaurants, especially the smaller ones. You see, most of them do have washbasins, but not all of them have liquid soaps. Some put out a bar of soap, but when you go to wash your hands, these pieces of soap look so dirty that I wonder if the soap is cleaning me or if I'm actually cleaning the soap. So I have to make do with scrubbing on my own. It's more noticable on my nails. They look really dirty sometimes. So I figured I'd keep my nails really short.

Next it's the apt itself. I was in Hyd for the weekend and when I came back the apt was dusty already. I initially figured I'd get a maid, or atleast sweep on my own every weekend. But even that might not be enough. I am accumulating cleaning supplies slowly. I might need a second broom.

But the overall apt is getting into a decent shape and I'm glad about that.

I'm on the Highway to Hell

Aaargh!!! I dunno what's more frustrating, being four hours late for work because the bus from Hyderabad was four hours late, or coming to work and realizing that they still haven't got anything substantial for you to do.

The journey back from Hyderabad (which I keep typing as Hyderabad - hmm, maybe I should copyright that) was on an APSRTC bus (Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation). The price was almost the same and except for the bottle of water (that was present on my way to Hyd and missing on the APSRTC bus) the experience was similar - a Telugu movie, blanket and cold a/c.

The differences were subtle at first. We left the city much later than promised. The bus also made much longer stops for bathroom breaks. During the first of these stops, the a/c in the bus was shut off, leaving the passengers suffocating after 10 minutes (the windows were sealed and there was zero air circulation) - luckily the driver came to his senses and turned the a/c back on at full blast.

And then we had the first tire blow out at 1am. I don't remember much about this since I fell asleep immediately after the blowout. And then at 5am we had another blowout. I tried to go back to sleep after this but couldn't. For a few hours I watched from my window as they tried to fix the tire. I couldn't see what the problem was but I could hear a lot of banging and hammering and about 10 passengers crowded around the driver who was trying to work on the tire. Normally changing a tire shouldn't take that long. Finally at 6:30am I got curious and got down from the bus.

Turned out the tire in blowing up had ripped apart the steel mud guard surrounding it. This meant that the steel segments would eventually tear apart the spare tire as well. So the driver, with help from the cleaner and some other passengers, was trying to tear out the damaged mud guard. This he was doing with crude tools like a hammer and the rod for the jack.

Meanwhile a bunch of passengers took their bags and decided to hitchhike. I assumed we were pretty close to Pune since it was already 7am. I found out that were still 236 kms from Pune, and just six kms out of Solapur. Basically were only halfway through our journey from Hyderabad!! I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to the 9:30am joint meeting at work. I made a few calls and got the word out to my family and work that I was in the middle of nowhere (I'm glad there were cellphone coverage there!)

Turned out the guys weren't hitchhiking all the way to Pune, they were just trying to get the next village to pick up some cigarettes! They came back in time and we finally managed to get going at 7:30 am and after reaching Pune, going home and showering etc, I didn't get to work till 2pm!

As with all mishaps in my life, I looked at the silver lining. Normally I'd eat a very light meal before a bus journey because of the lack of clean toilet facilities on the way. This time on a impulse I made an exception and had a decent meal. This of course helped me from getting too hungry and either eating with an unclean mouth or having to use some really dirty water to brush my teeth. And thankfully I didn't need to use the toilet till I reached home. My guardian angel is still watching over me!

A TV and a Dish

There's a TV in my apt now. It's an LG Flatron. I also have my own satellite dish that streams a bunch of programs right into my living room without any pesky cables that get stolen, or cable company that claims not to be able to do anything about the sudden loss of service. The installation was quite efficient. Two guys showed up with a dish and some cables and proceeded to drill holes on the walls of my roof and laid out the cable. The service was activated and soon I had Sonali Bendre talking to me about the services provided by my Tata Sky dish. I get 100+ channels in this package but not enough S. Indian Channels. I might need to modify the package. I miss Sun Music and would like to keep myself up to date with the Tamil music. But more importantly, the junk that's on TV these days is horrible. Every channel has four to five tickers with news on them. And the rest is just loud music. I watched four actors in some movie dance to a version of "Rock the Casbah". I need (all) my Telugu Channels so I can atleast watch some movies.

My TV itself is quite cool. At first it looked like the remote didn't work and that I had a patch of color on the TV, but I got the remote exchanged and the color patch disappeared after a "reboot". The TV even has a game built into it!!! It's a modified form of Space Invaders.

On the satellite I get CNN International and can probably get ESPN if I sprung for it, but I'll hold off on it - after all, I doubt I'll get NFL on it. There are a lot of interactive channels on it. For example I can look at Matrimonial ads (Active Matrimonial) and if I like a match, I can send an SMS and get contacted by the other party. There are also some channels called Active Stories and Active Learning. In the absence of my laptop, I think these will do finely.

Ridin' dirty

A little glimpse at my road experiences so far.

This is what I looked like the first few days I went to work. Protection for my hair, eyes and nose/mouth.

And this is me with my helmet. Better or worse? Frankly the helmet gets the edge because in addition to protecting my skull, it actually doesn't mess up my hair too much.

This is my scooter.

Awaiting real license plates. (If I name my scooter Sasha and no one gets the reference, is it still funny?

This is an extremely common sight on the roads here. Women cover their faces almost completely, and in some cases even wear shades to protect their eyes while on the road. It's not limited to drivers or even passengers of two wheelers. Even pedestrians and bus passengers do this. In case I haven't mentioned it before, the non-nose/mouth covering is to protect their hair. And that's a sign that women are beginning to put effort into how they look. A good sign.

The Philosophy of Driving

Drivers in India are not that different from those in the US. I used to think, and still do, that there are fundamentally some things that are different about Americans and Indians. Overall courtesy, attitude toward hard work, attitude toward more vague concepts like freedom and justice etc. One difference I assumed existed was in driving attitude. In the US, people don't cut across lanes in a traffic jam, they don't honk incessantly just to express annoyance. But basically they're in a hurry and will anything they can to get to their destination faster. That's what Indians do too.

As I was driving last night (before the bug incident), I was squeezed in between a group of vehicles but a gap opened up between two autos which, if I could navigate through, I would hit daylight and be in the clear. At that very moment, the guy on the two wheeler on my right saw that gap too, and even though basically his front wheel was a few inches my front wheel, he accelerated through and cut in front of me. I managed to avoid hitting him but before I could shout at him, he had squeezed through the gap and was gone.

The thing is, this sort of a thing happened to me a lot in Houston - I am in my lane and I have left a decent gap between my car and the car in front of me. This gap is "mine", it comes from my discretion and it gives me the luxury of a few extra milliseconds to respond in case the car in front of decides to stop all of a sudden. But the guy in the lane to me feels that the gap is big enough to squeeze in and does so. Now I am forced to brake and move back to create the same gap here.

It's the same selfish principles at play. The difference of course is the level at which they actually affect you - ranging from annoying to even more annoying. The difference comes from things like the cost of a collision. In the US because of the prices of the cars and speeds of driving, it's much higher.

In spite of that I'll take the US any day.

Debugging life

Life sucks.

I'm miserable. Atleast, I was last night.

The early days of taking a vehicle to work were kinda exciting. I got covered up from head to toe to protect myself from the dust and smoke and managed to drive well. I had two goals for yesterday - find a helmet and find an internet service provider. Last night, it got kinda dark as I was leaving work and I couldn't use my shades or else I'd be blind. So I took them off. And as I was looking for a helmet, bam! A bug got into my eye. It was horrible. I was half-blind, driving on a big road in the middle of traffic and had to carefully get out to the edge before I could stop. I got most of the bug out of my eye but not before it bit me. Now I had an eye that was blinded and another that was watering profusely in sympathy. What bothered me the most was that if I'd left work 30 mins earlier, I'd have been using my glasses. And another 10 minutes and I'd have found a helmet store and I'd have been safe. It was in that narrow margin when I was most exposed that I got hit. It was one of the most frustrating moments since I came to Pune. I know it won't be the last of frustrating moments, but it was hard to justify existance on a while for a brief period there. Existance in Pune atleast.

But yeah, I eventually did get the helmet last night. I asked around and had to drive a few kilometers on the highway (with my swollen eye) and found a dealer. I asked him to show me a few models and I picked the one that fit me the best. He asked what motorbike I came there on - perhaps to match the helmet etc. I showed him my tiny two wheeler. "That?" he asked, "You want a helmet for that thing?" I grinned, "Yeah." "When you asked for a helmet I thought you wanted it for a big motorcycle." After he finished mocking me I explained that I actually didn't know how to drive a geared motorbike and I was frankly scared of doing that. He shook his head and I had his sympathy after that. Nevertheless, I now have a helmet and it's wonderful because it does the a great job of protecting my hair (from dust), my eyes (from dust/bugs), my nose/mouth (from dust/smoke) and I guess my skull (from getting crushed).

And today morning I had no water in the house but it came on a few minutes later.

"Bhagwan ke ghar mein der hai, andher nahi."  (There maybe be delays when you pray to God, but not permanent darkness).

I am definitely a part of the disease now

I got my two wheeler and am really excited about it!!

 It's a dull blue Bajaj Kristal. The other colors were Red (too generic) and Black (even more generic). Basically I wanted a color that stood out not just on the road (Look at me!!) but also so I could easily spot it in a parking lot. It's gearless, so all I need to focus on is the accelerator/brake and not getting killed by an overeager bus driver.

I still need to get it registered but that can wait a couple of days. For now I've been asked to stay away from the sight of cops, not because I am doing anything illegal, but just because some cops, like uncivilized creatures of any species, don't like excessive eye contact.

As I mentioned earlier, I did take it out for a test drive the day before. So this time I was confident enough to drive it home. I gradually kept pushing my top speed to 30 kmph. I got home, took a shower and was ready to explore the neighborhood! So drove on the streets. I still don't dare turn my head while driving so I don't know most of the stores, but my peripheral vision gives me enough of an idea of the streets and landmarks. Ate dinner at an Indian Restaurant (ha! ha!). There was a camel that was being led by someone on my street and no one gave it a second look. I hate to mention that because I don't want some ignorant Chinese guy (I'm looking at you, my ex-labmate at UT, you idea thief, you!) asking me if we ride camels to work in India.

I definitely considered coming to work by bus today, and trying the bike journey for later, but I am just eager to accelerate my learning process. Decked out in nice clothes (which I'd been avoiding because of the sweating due to walking) and a better pair of shades, I took off for work. The shades were a great idea since they protected my eyes not just from the dust but also the smoke. I should have gotten somethign for my mouth as well since by the time I reached work, I could taste all of Nagar road.

And yes, I broke quite a few laws in this process. I drove a little on the wrong side, I turned without signalling, I cut a couple of red lights and passed from the wrong side. (Jim Carrey from Liar! Liar! anyone?) I'm the guy that people complain about now. However try as I can, I can never drive as bad as some of the people there. I hope to keep it that way. Oh and I have to get a helmet as soon as possible.