Blow Horn

The main thing I learned on my recent trip to India is that people, no matter what they are going through, figure out a way to make things work. It may not be the ideal solution, but we always seem to come up with something. As I was heading north from Delhi to Dharamsala, this really sunk in. I found myself looking over the shoulder of our driver (Durga) in amazement. The usual rules of driving - staying to one side, not overtaking on corners, using headlights - simply didn't apply. From what I can tell, there is only one rule in most parts of India: honk.

Our driver must have honked his horn every 30 seconds for the entire 250 mile, 11 hr journey. In the beginning I just thought he was a bit strange (I was getting used to not understanding quite what was going on there), but I began to realize that that was literally their way of controlling traffic. If you came to a corner, it was not uncommon to have a man and his wife in her sari on a motorbike zooming passing a massive pickup truck. And the way you avoided this catastrophe was by honking just before you came to that corner. Turns out it works like a charm. Clearly it helps that the roads don't let you go particularly fast either -- do the math on our average speed for that trip.

So what have Indians done? Paint on as many cars, trucks, and auto-rickshaws as they can "Blow Horn" and "Please Honk" with some flowers and pretty colors to soften the message. At that point, I began to realized how much I was going to like India.


Of course, there are many, many problems there that haven't been solved in such a cute way. The level of poverty for so much of the population is beyond anything I've ever imagined. My heart sank having to turn down one deathly looking child after another for fear that if I gave to one, then I would get mobbed by the rest. Don't get me wrong, you definitely do not see that everywhere you go, but it's not hard to find. So I didn't end up taking a single picture like the ones you see in the newspaper - it's just impossible to bring yourself to (1) take out your camera at those times and (2) not offer all the money you have when you do. I, clearly not very bravely, chose to just keep walking.

Amongst all this chaos, you start to settle into the flow of the city where you are. I started my journey in Mumbai -, which used to be called Bombay. I prefer Bombay because many locals still use it sort of as slang. A bit like saying NYC instead of the official New York City. All in all, I spent 5 days working there, 4 days traveling, and a day seeing the city. Much too quick to take in such a large country, but I did my best to see all I could. Dharamsala by itself will be at least one blog post, so I'll focus on the city for now.

Mumbai is growing fast. The team I work with is one of thousands of technology companies looking for less expensive, but still talented, employees. For us, another main driver is that they cover a time of the day when we don't have people in either our Hong Kong or London offices. So we can literally get things done 24 hours a day. Along with Bangalore and one or two other locations, Mumbai is a key part of this. So right along side the poverty I described above, there is a huge amount of success. I'm really hoping that this prosperity will be better distributed amongst the population, but right now it is simply a tragedy.

Back on the happier side of the city, I was thrilled to spend time watching people enjoying the cooler temps at sunset on Juhu and Chowpatty beaches - a favorite pastime for many locals. Here they are walking on the sidewalk of Marine Drive....




That community feeling is very strong there. For an outsider, it was nice to get a glimpse of how that feels for them. In fact, it is so important, that it was described to me as one of the things that makes people the most happy in their work - when they really feel included in the broader team. Perhaps Indian's aren't so different from the rest of us, eh?

Ok so sorry that's all I can write for now - early shift tomorrow. Gotta make sure that 24 hour system coverage goes smoothly. I'll leave you with one more iconic pic from Bombay...


Cheers! More soon! Happy Father's Day!!

Dan