Delhi International Airport’s terminal was undergoing upgrading works. It was dusty and cramp. Loose wires and air-con structures were clearly visible overhead. Ceiling over the luggage collection belt area was so low that I could touch it with the top of my head by tip-toeing. The wait for our luggage definitely took longer than that in Changi Airport. That was when I realized I had arrived at a third world country.
The road leaving the airport was undergoing upgrading works too. I was overwhelmed by a sense of deja-vu as I barely remembered I had been there during one of my working trips about three years ago. The roads were under upgrading works then. They still are.
Then came the irritating sounds of vehicle horn, all too frequent that they were hardly effective. Road users including pedestrians there had developed deaf ears on the horning sounds as they tried death-defying stunts in getting ahead.
I was amazed at how many different kinds of vehicle allowed on public roads there. Besides bicycles, cars and lorries, they have two-wheel motorbikes, three-wheel motorbikes, bull-carts, camel-carts and even farming tractors on roads between Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.
My wife and I felt that we were very lucky to have a safe driver assigned to us throughout our tour. Shalinder is our driver’s name. He is an Indian Muslim. He did not drive recklessly. But he still horned too often that we expected him to. He would pressed on the car horn continuously when he saw a motorbike, or whatever vehicle that may be, in front on our lane far ahead. And as usual, the motorbike showed no sign of giving way as if the horning was some sort of singing in the wind.
As I tried to analyze why do Indian drivers horn so often, I came across some colorful messages printed on the back of some lorries, ‘Horn Please – Use Dipper at Night’. Apparently, the lorry drivers could not see what was coming from behind. Vehicles from behind were encouraged to signal either by horning or using high beam at night (to minimize noise?). And why was it that they could not see what was coming from behind? Because either the side mirrors were flushed with the vehicles' body and thus not usable or the side mirrors were not installed at all! The same situation occurred to cars and motorbikes. It was just that there was no space on other vehicles for such colorful messages.
And why didn’t they install side mirror, which is an important safety feature? To reduce aerodynamic drag and save fuel, I guessed.
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