Trouble in Old Delhi

(Thane) As my last post discussed, the major challenge in driving was getting used to how much space to leave on the right. Little did I know how crucial this would be the very next day, when I decided to try out the drive to Sonepat, which is where Jindal Global Law School, my new employer, is located.

The previous day, I had driven in to Connaught Place from the South of Delhi, and the driving was fine. All the roads were modern, paved, and very wide with well-marked lanes for traffic. So I figured that the road leading due North from Connaught Place would be the same. Little did I know what I was in for. I was heading straight through the heart of Old Delhi, one of the most crowded urban areas on the planet. The road shrunk to tiny width, and was completely crowded with motorcycles, auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, ox-carts, and hand-pulled carts. Whenever the tiniest of spaces opened up between two vehicles, it was instantly filled by a pedestrian crossing the street. (This picture, taken by another traveller, doesn’t even begin to do it justice.) There were not very many cars, for good reason. It was almost impossible to get a car through. You just eased along, never taking it out of first gear, often spending minutes at a time completely stopped.

I wanted to cling to the left side of the road, but that would have meant sitting motionless in gridlock. To get anywhere, you have to weave around obstacles by moving to the right side of the road, and then dash back to the left side to avoid the oncoming traffic (which wouldn’t even think of slowing down). Unfortunately, I was a little too timid about going all the way to the right side, and so I eventually scraped up against one of the cycle-rickshaws. Somehow the cycle-rickshaw was completely unharmed, but my rear bumper came unhooked on the left side. So now my bumper is dragging on the ground, which is completely unacceptable.  I had to pull partway over, get out and use the only thing I had in the car–Scotch tape–to hold the bumper back in place.

Picture the scene. My car, halfway pulled over to the right, with me out in the full heat of the Delhi morning, trying to apply enough Scotch tape to the bumper to make sure that it wouldn’t drag on the ground. I was a complete novelty to the locals, and quite a crowd formed to watch. Meanwhile, even though I was blocking a good half of the road, not to mention the crowd of onlookers laughing at me, the traffic continued to flow around me in all directions. It was one of the more ludicrous situations I’ve ever been in.

Fortunately, I was able to get the tape to stick, the bumper in place, and back on the move. But now I was even more timid. I took well over an hour to go a grand total of three kilometers.

Fortunately, this isn’t what most Delhi driving is all about. Once I was back out of Old Delhi, I could tool along just fine, and I even went highway speeds on a full four-lane highway most of the way to Sonepat.  The first thing I did back at the hotel was draw a big red circle around the Old Delhi area on my map, to ensure that I never go near there again. That’s one lesson I wish I hadn’t had to learn the hard way.

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Tags: accident, auto rickshaw, Chandni Chowk, driving, Old Delhi