The travel to and fro work is a big bother especially when you are in India. Well let me be a little more specific, in Bangalore. I however have the luxury of hitching a ride for now with my dad and as luck would have it my internship is not in a location that requires mental and physical preparation of 2 hrs and more as some of the unluckier few have to. India being a multitude of people and a even greater multitude of vehicles, we are faced with a severe lack of infrastructure in the terms of our road and highways. Even a simple footpath for the pedestrians is a foregone conclusion in most areas of the city. And if we do happen to see that footpath, well it is mostly occupied with everything from animals to little tuck shops to beggars to that most important cobbler to chai wallas to even two-wheelers. So where is the place for our pedestrians to exert their right of way?
This morning we almost knocked down a pedestrian who decided to take the next best thing to his footpath, the road! And yes the roads do happen to be like those obnoxiously thin friends of ours who eat and eat and yet don't become fat. Here the roads are so overcrowded with people and yet we don't seem to be waking up to the woes of a failed infrastructure system in the city and in fact for most two wheelers the footpath has become the de facto road to many. While I was out cursing the pedestrian for not using his head and walking in the middle of the road and in all certainty being at the end of his sadistic remarks as well, my dad very calmly says "What else can he do?" Looking back I realize that it was the season of the tender coconut's, who majestically were exerting their right over the footpaths as the new gods of the pedestrian's path.