pune city or indian traffic on a motorbike

last sunday, my colleague nikhil picked me up at my apartment complex at 5 p.m. a few seconds later, we were like fish in a sea with very strong currents, which is rather euphemistically put when talking about indian traffic. first off: i never felt really unsafe during the approximately 45 minutes we were rolling to and through poona city. nobody wears a helmet over here, neither did we, although the non-existent traffic rules and the prevailing chaos definitely demand for one. then again, at the spots where danger seemed to peak, the moving crowd also lowered its driving speed to a minimum. the average passenger in flip flops would always advance faster here.

anyway, neither nikhil nor i were injured or harmed in any other way. admittedly, more than just once notions such as “there it is coming, this truck is going to hit us big time, here we go…” were flashing in my head. but as if every vehicle had its own protecting carma as an invisual bumper, nothing ever happened. if i had to write a book about how to survive and succeed in indian traffic, i would probably go with the title “recognizing and seizing opportunities”.

apart from the traffic, an abundance of mind-boggling impressions - again - struck me during this quick ride. join me here, here, and here.

we finished the day off by climbing on of the mountains nearby that offer a quite scenic view on pune. i there came to remember that pune as agglomeration is larger than any other german city…a marvellous view.

ti-bob