Driving in Ahmedabad (The seventh sense)

I always thought Bangalore to be the worst affected in terms of road traffic and driving sense. One step into Ahmedabad and all the notions were gone. In terms of road traffic, congestion, number of vehicles Bangalore does stand tall, but in terms of driving sense or to say traffic sense Ahmedabad takes it all.

You require something called the seventh sense to ride your vehicle over here. Something which cannot get into a traveler or may be a person who has shifted to the city lately. Its just an inborn talent to avoid vehicles at the last moment and without any emotions whatsoever continue driving. Its a unique ability to completely misjudge the vehicles coming in, and at the nth moment synchronize in harmony with them, just like the ants do. Back in Bangalore u would be greeted with "The Finger" or may be with a few unparliamentary words for such an effort for sure.

To get into the groove of the seventh sense u require a bit of the following
    1. Rash driving skills (fast paced lane switching, sudden bursts of speeding)
    2. Signal hopping  skills (presence of traffic cops to be taken care of. If not present u can skip any signal.. When i say any, it really means any of them absolutely)
    3. Neck bending skills (to talk over the phone while driving)
    4. Identification avoidance skills (Super cool sunglasses and clothes completely covering your face)
    5. Superb braking skills (The autos are fitter with hydraulic brakes for the same purpose)
    6. And of course lots of prayers before u take out your vehicle

After U have mastered these skills, it time to test your real driving skills.

If you are driving a two wheeler what u don't wanna do is keep your leg down (stop) on the road.To accomplish u can go to any extent which includes movement in tight corners jumping signals etc. For the auto guys its a different ball game. What the auto guys don't like is any kind of vacant space in the road or at traffic junctures. So to fill in a gap on the left hand side of the road he can move from the right hand side to the left in a Giffy (of-course without indication/intimation). The car guys always want to be in the front. So some of them use there honks more than the accelerator pedals. Buses are not much to be seen on the roads but even they do try sneaking in on tiny gaps.

When the whole city rides this way, you trying to be a sane person is definitely not gonna help. So "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" is the only quote u need to follow to survive. One very good thing about people driving over here is that "nobody complains".. LOL