Cultural Differences/Misunderstandings

The first time I ever visited United States was in the year 2002, as a tourist. I was excited and nervous both and was really looking forward for my first ever –Western experience. I was travelling with my international driving license and rented a nice beautiful SUV. I was ready and in gear for my adventure to start.

While coming out of the parking lot I honked couple of times, once when I was close to someone walking on the road and once at the gate of the car rental building as the driver in front of me wouldn’t just budge. The road was empty still he wouldn’t turn onto it. As I did that, I saw some people who were walking towards the rental office stare at me. I thought maybe it was because of my skin color or maybe they just found me amusing and different.

It was until two hours later when I reached the designated address defined by GPS, that I found out how wrong I was in honking at people or at other motorists on the road. As I drove unto the driveway I started honking in excitement so that my friends would run out to greet me upon my grand entrance. To my surprise I saw them run out and instead of smiling they were yelling “Stop honking- this isn’t India!”

Driving in India is a sensory experience that one also needs apart from sight, ears too. Honking is one of the crucial and essential parts of driving there. People honk when they see their friend driving next to them, so that they acknowledge their presence. People honk when traffic is slow, or when in traffic jam. They go especially nuts if there is a cow stuck in the intersection or to get rid of pedestrians or bicyclists. Basically it’s a process that uses your skill of driving less but more of honking so you can get through from one place to another, as if you slow down you have been defeated, that is the normal norm the motorists follow.

They say if you can drive in Italy you can drive anywhere. I would like to rephrase that by saying if you drive in India you can truly drive anywhere.

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