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The Roads of Rajasthan
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THE ROADS OF RAJASTHAN
The drive from Udaipur to Pushkar was about 8 hours, the longest leg of our trip. I suppose this is as good a time as any to talk about the driving experience. No, I didn't drive...I slept. I have a tendency to fall asleep as a passenger in any moving vehicle. Perhaps it's the hum of the engine combined with the motion of the vehicle - auto, train, boat, plane - that just makes my eyes heavy and my brain slow. My parents tell me that, when I was a baby, they would take me for rides in the car if they couldn't get me to sleep. I'm the same way now as I was then; during each leg of our journey (excepting the first and the last), I fought my hardest before giving into the heat and the motion. Needless to say, I slept through a lot of our road trip.
What I did see, however, was spectacular - straight out of National Geographic. The topography and scenery varies from place to place but it remains fairly constant throughout Rajasthan. The region is mostly hot and desert-like with very few roads, as only a tiny minority of India's population own cars. The existing roads are long, narrow dirt or concrete arteries linking one city to the next. The parched camel-colored landscape is splashed with bright colors, a constant reminder of life throughout the barren region. Women in their colorful saris work in the fields that seem to stretch for miles on end, lining both sides of the two-lane 'highways.' People would appear in the middle of nowhere, walking to some place that I will never see, carrying giant bundles upon their heads - sticks, hay, ceramic water jugs - unimaginable loads of everything under the hot sun. We passed blue-uniformed children walking barefoot to (or from) school, saw the occasional broken down truck, and were stopped on several occasions for shepherds to clear their flocks from the roadways.
To experience the roads of India can be a bit daunting as a passenger; I can only imagine driving them! It's a constant game of chicken with other cars, trucks, buses, scooters, rickshaws, bicycles, pedestrians, dogs, goats, camels, donkeys, and - of course - cows. Road 'rules' don't really exist; people generally drive on the left side of the road, but that doesn't stop them from passing on either side of you, or from coming straight at you. Everyone drives as if in a hurry, honking their horns, zipping around and often swerving to avoid collision. Trucks and buses have particularly crazy horns with blaring songs that would impress even the Dukes of Hazzard! People pile into and on top of the buses and trucks, many hanging off the sides and backs. The chaos of India's road travel is unparalleled. Our comfort amidst this madness is a great credit to Pan Singh. He was an excellent driver, and he guided us through countless potholes, speed bumps, and head-on trucks without significantly altering our blood pressure. (And as I mentioned, most of the time I was so relaxed that I slept!)
Within each city there exists a network of roads that - despite the British influence - lack apparent planning, and the further into the city the crazier and more clogged the arteries become. The medians and islands of roundabouts are populated by people and lounging animals, and litter is strewn alongside the streets. In fact, we wonder if there is any organized pickup, removal, or general control of trash at all, as there are piles of garbage everywhere. These piles of trash are frequented mostly by the grazing cows, a heart-wrenching sight when you consider their fate. We were told about the danger of plastic bags to cows and how such indigestible items slowly strangle the cows' innards, dooming them to a long, slow, and painful death. We read about how, in some bigger cities, there are people that somehow lasso the really sick cows and bring them to animal hospitals for treatment. Being privately owned, the surviving cows must be released to their fate after treatment. It seems like a horrible, unending cycle for the Brahman cows. On the upside, at least they're safe crossing the road!
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