Traffic like a River

I will try to describe the traffic here. 

The best image I can come up with is to compare it to the flow of a river. As with a river, there are no stop signs or traffic lights. Seriously! I'm not making this up. 

This river of traffic, unlike a river of water, flows both ways at the same time. Within its currents are everything from goats, dogs and cows to walkers, bicycles, motorcycles and rickshaws to cars, huge trucks and the occasional gigantic tour bus. In addition, along the riverbank-sides of the road are vendors and their stalls, beggars and frequently a large congregation of people playing music and dancing to celebrate things like weddings and funerals and I don't know what else. There are also a multitude of small temples and shrines. In the US we have a Starbucks every block and here they have a temple or a shrine every block....tells you a lot about who is worshiping what. 

Add to the above the fact that almost all the roads are the size of one lane of our roads. Really.....I am not making this up.....the 2 way flow of the river of traffic happens inside the width of one lane of our roads....and sometimes a smaller width than that. 

 I have been mostly walking. It feels a bit like a dance of sorts. I have to keep moving and be fluid in my movement (not staccato, rigid or linear) so I can weave right or left at a moment's notice, to flow past a cow, rickshaw or motorcycle and thereby keep moving with the current. To stop and stand still is dangerous. To get into a linear state of mind or movement is dangerous. 

It's kind of mind-boggling when my western mind stops to consider it. I can't believe it all works and that everybody, more or less, makes it home alive. 

Getting into the flow and out of it, when I'm walking, is like getting into and out of a game of double jump-rope.  Sorry if you never played that game as a child. Wish I had a visual image or a mini-video to show you. To get into a game of jump rope or the flow of traffic in India, you have to stand and wait and stay open and receptive and ready and then Go! Jump in.....and keep moving. 

We've also been in cars, on the road, with a hired driver (not driving ourselves, thank God) when we need to go longer distances to temples etc. It's similar to what I described in walking, the fluidity and contingency. You really don't ever just drive in your own lane. For example, sometimes a car will squeeze between two trucks if there's room. And often the car will be driving on the opposite side from where it is supposed to be if that is the best way to keep the current of traffic moving. I really think traffic lights an stop signs would be disastrous.  There are too many different kinds of moving objects moving at too many different speeds (as I mentioned above: goats, dogs, monkeys, cows, walkers, bicycles, motorcycles, rickshaws, cars, trucks and tour buses). Drivers rely heavily on horns to let other drivers know they're there. In fact, most of the big trucks have a sign on the back saying "horn please" because they don't have functional rear-view mirrors. 

If I was at home and somehow found myself in this kind of traffic, whether walking or driving, I would be terrified. But here I am quite relaxed.  And amazed. For some reason, here in India, where there is so much devotion, it's easier for me to let myself be part of, and carried along by, the flow and know that it's all in Gods hands.