Driving in India

A video speaks a thousand words. Click on the title.

Simple equation => Sum all bad drivers in all the countries upto India = One Indian truck or bus driver.

Crossing Paths

One of the unexpected pleasures of driving half way around the world is meeting the same people in different countries as we each follow our own path. I have meet Dutch riding bicycles to Melbourne, people driving 4x4s around the world and backpackers flying, busing and training their way on a similar path to me. It’s great to hear each person’s experience of a town, country and culture - amazing it can be so different. The best part is developing a friendship over time instead of meeting people once over dinner or a beer – which can be like ground hog day…. the same conversation.

South India – a different world

On my Christmas break all warm clothes were left behind because now only hot days and warms nights were ahead of me. In northern India I was forced to wear all my clothes to stay warm, so I was excited to step off the train into warm weather. Bangalore is a modern city with footpaths, booze shops and wi-fi cafes…just what I like.

I drove south down the center of India through old British hill stations, tiger reserves, national parks and winding roads with little traffic, fantastic riding conditions. I was reminded how unfit, inflexible and a little fat I am after a few yoga classes and made the resolution to continue yoga for my duration in India, but a yoga classroom was never to be seen again. Instead I visited two western beach resorts, one in Kerala and one in Goa, where I swam for 30min every morning, explored the coastal towns and read my books, I was super chilled after this week.

Gurus

Arriving in Bangalore, I contacted a friend and former colleague, Suresh, from my last contract in London. It was good to meet his family, learn about South Indian culture and drive around the technology parks, which make Bangalore the I.T. outsourcing capital of India.
Suresh’s son attends the free Sai Baba School about 140 km north of Bangalore. After learning about the ashram from the Russians, I had to take up Suresh’s offer to visit with his family on Sunday. The ashram is a living city, 15 tower blocks of dormitories, hospital, restaurants, supermarkets and cafes. It has a real buzz with thousands of people visiting for the day or staying for months. I estimated about a tenth of the people there were western which explains 114 Sai Baba centers around the world.
A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others. This explains the description of him from his devotees as an avatar, godman, spiritual teacher and miracle worker. It was explained to me that in Hinduism a god can take many forms, this would explain the many Guru's in India.

The Sai Baba’s organisation has made a big contribution to people around the Ashram, with free health care in modern state of the art hospitals. I was impressed with the ashram setup, generosity of devotees and the benefits provided to ordinary Indians but being a devotee is not for me.

New mode of transport

To save some time, wear and tear on the bike and petrol cost on my wallet we jumped on the train for a 40 hour ride from New Delhi to Bangalore. I went for the premier way to ride, 2 AC sleeper, which means 2 bunks in a compartment with air-conditioning. I was lucky enough to share the compartment with 3 Russian ladies on their way to spend a month at Sai Baba Ashram (but that’s another story). Only one lady spoke a little English….so a quiet 40 hours for me.

Down into smoggy India

It was a surreal experience to ride down off the Himalayan foothills, where the horizon changed from mountains and blue sky to a line of grey smog and blue sky. At times the visablity was less than 50 meters, slow going but then this is a crowded part of the world and my average speed to way lower than usual.

I then drove down to Varansi, Khajuraho, Taj Mahal and onto New Delhi. The whole time I have been under a layer smog and with the cold air from the Himalayas creating fog, this meant the sun only appeared for a few hours a day.

Maoists – red is ruining the country!

No matter how you classify wealth, Nepal ends up at the bottom, ie: GDP 163 out of 181 and per capita 55% leave on under US $2 per day. A small number who interact with tourists do well and the majority has a tough life, similar to many countries I have visited so far!

Unfortunately for Nepal, they have no products or resources that the world desires and their major income earner is tourism. Tourism is good but it is hard to distribute the wealth in a cash economy, affected by civil war and political uncertainty. The Transparency International 2009 corruption ranking for Nepal was 143 out of 180 countries.

Summarizing a complex issue, in May 2008 a new government was elected, a coalition between the Maoists (37%) and Unified Marxist-Leninist (17%)(you would assume the same ideals to be one party), with the Nepali Congress (18%) heading the opposition. The 3 main parties follow the UN negotiated peace agreement and agreed to write a new constitution within 2 years and after the abolition of the monarchy. The UN monitors the peace accord to ensure all parties stick to the deal. There were a few problems so the Maoists’ resigned from the government over 12 months ago. On a regular basis (twice a month between 1 and 3 days), the Maoists shutdown the country, block the roads with stones, logs and people. Then threaten violence to people who use the roads or businesses that are open for trade. Foreigners are exempt and I did drive several times through road blocks with some angry shouting and waving of red flags.

The Maoists are new to democracy and are learning on the job (they are use to pulling the trigger if someone disagrees) and democracy is all about compromise (Barak Obama will agree).
On a similar wave length, parts of the Islamic world educate the illiterate with an extremist view. In Nepal the Maoists tell the illiterate to ‘follow me and life will improve’ and very successfully people follow, who are un-educated from the country side, on mass to the major towns to block the roads and shutdown the country. When making a living depends on time open for trading, this impacts the majority and affects the earning power of individuals and governments, who need all the help they can get. The result of these strikes means everyone is poorer; country people are more frustrated with no change to their living standard, city people dislike being held to ransom by the Maoists and everyone is disillusioned with the Politian’s.

Is there an answer…yes...Maoists need to open their eyes and live in the real world, sure political agreement is difficult , change takes time but shutting down the country and stirring up the uneducated from the countryside is detrimental to Nepal and its people going forward.