Exploring Madurai on my Scooter

June Narrative:


This post is a little different from what I've been doing in the past but since it's particularly relevant to how life is for me right now I decided to go ahead and include it.  Rather than rehash an old experience I'm choosing to share my June Narrative which is something I turn in to my superiors at Shansi after my first year here in Madurai.  I enjoyed writing this partially because it's helped me process some of what I've been going through in India and also because it's helped me work through my own issues with India.  Hopefully you all get something out of this as well although I can't guarantee it will be as fun to read as all the others.

   

               Since I arrived at Madurai I've been trying (not so successfully) to keep a blog about the crazy mishaps and bumbling adventures I've had so far.  I thought that perhaps for  my first June narrative these stories would be a perfect way to summarize my experience thus far but I realized that they only show a fraction of how my life has been thus far.  It wasn't until I picked up a new hobby that I realized what my narrative should be about and how I could represent what I felt to be the India I have experienced thus far. 

               This new hobby of mine, well at first I thought it was the one activity that combines together all of the things to enjoy about India but cuts out all the frustration that can sometimes tag along.  I realize after taking some time to think about it that this isn't an entirely accurate assumption.  What I'm talking about is driving, more precisely driving the Shansi scooter throughout the streets of Madurai.  And I think that for my first narrative writing about driving is the perfect way to explain how I've come to understand and enjoy Madurai.  

               I, like the many Shansi fellows before me, have fallen in love with the Lady Doak scooter.  More precisely, I've fallen in love with driving this dusty thing around Madurai.  When I first left for India practically anyone who had worked at Shansi was adamant that I should start driving as soon as I get used to traffic.  Carl and Deb mentioned many times how for most of the Madurai fellows driving a scooter around town and the nearby villages was by far some of the better memories.  I don't doubt it either.  Today, for example, on my way back from the gym rather than head straight back towards Lady Doak I decided I'd rather explore one of the streets that leads out of the busy city.  It was a spur of the minute decision but everything seemed right about the choice.  There was a cool breeze blowing no doubt due to the monsoon that just hit Kerala and there were more than a few rain clouds leaving pockets of sunlight to come down.  This may sound like bad weather to drive in for some but if you've ever lived in India you'll realize this is a wonderful reprieve from scorching temperatures.

               I wasn't headed anywhere in particular and I didn't even know if there was anything worth seeing in the direction I was headed in but there was something about that drive that made me appreciate where I was more so than any other moment (lately that is).  I think this is because while driving you get to experience everything that makes India, India. 

               For example, surrounding me were the same people I saw every day; the older women with the colorful sari's and jasmine flowers tied in their hair, the motorcycle-driving fashionable sunglass-wearing guys hanging out at the tea stalls, and little children playing cricket out on a field.  Normally my presence in this scene would not go unnoticed and at some point all attention would turn towards the foreigner who is clearly sticking out like a sore thumb.  But when you drive you pass by it all in a blip, meaning you get to hold on to that moment without someone coming up to you asking to take your picture.  Or some guy coming up trying his be st to tease you into going out with him. 

You can appreciate everything.  The beautiful palm trees that stick out into the street, a wedding reception being set up by the side of the road, or just all of the colorful fruit stalls that are scattered everywhere.   Even the smell of burning trash becomes a little bit easier on the nose, as crazy as that sounds.  Not to mention everything is easier to deal with in India when you have a pleasant breeze blowing on your face; instead of sweating like a pig you can actually enjoy the sun rather than try to hide from it.  In a nutshell, It's just you on the road without having to worry about being the intruder.  Of course you aren't the only one there; you might have a bus barreling down the road behind you or five other scooters trying to edge you off the pavement.  Then there's the occasional temple elephant out for a leisurely stroll on the streets; and make no mistake, they might be massive but they move quick.  If you aren't careful you'll find one nearly cutting you off at a busy intersection.  But once you get the hang of Indian traffic you can start pushing back and rather than wait for everyone else to pass you start to assert yourself. 

It's one of the few times, I think, that you can actually feel like a part of what is happening rather than watching from the outside in.  There's a certain type of confidence that comes from being able to navigate your way around a city and an even greater confidence when you know that you can push back.  It's like you are actively having an opinion about something which, for me at least, has been hard to do without feeling like I might be making unfair assumptions.  I suppose it represents being completely independent which is not something I've felt often in India.  Or I should say I haven't felt successful at being independent in India.  I constantly feel as though I have to ask permission to do things despite the fact that I'm 23 and I think part of it is because I'm at an all girl's college where the girls have very little independence themselves.  I think this is a big part of the reason why I enjoy driving so much and I can't help but wonder if this is also why some of the past fellows enjoyed it.  Maybe not so much for the independence aspect but perhaps because even if someone gives you a weird stare they are gone and in your back mirror before you really have time to notice.  And this gives you the chance to really look around the country you're in without any bias and without worrying about everyone else.

               But it's certainly not an easy hobby.  It took me 6 months to work up the courage to drive my scooter around.  6 months.  That's 6 months of straight haggling with every auto driver I meet and hoping that the driver I chose actually knew where I wanted to go.  It also means being at the mercy of random strangers because I had no idea how much it should cost to go to the train station or downtown, or anywhere for that matter. Even after I started it took me 2 more months just to drive farther than a 3 mile radius from the campus.  Not only had I never ridden a scooter before but just looking at the traffic in Madurai I thought everyone was clearly out of their mind if they thought I was going to put myself in the middle of that.

               In fact many of the teachers kept asking if I was using my scooter and pressuring me to take it out because if not the battery would die.  I didn't tell them at the time I would prefer the battery dying over myself dying somewhere on a street in Madurai but that feeling was definitely present all throughout those first 6 months.  So my scooter collected dust and I lied my teeth off telling everyone how much I enjoyed using it  

I'd say it took me about 3 months to feel completely at home driving around the city.  The one thing I've realized is that there is reason to the madness.  The first thing you notice about driving in India is the sheer lack of rules to it; everyone is going where they please and there is no such thing as driving the wrong way in traffic.  Almost everyone does it when it's too busy to cross the street meaning that you can't just blank out while driving.  But it's because of this obvious lack of regulations that everyone is hyper-aware of what is going on.  It's also the other reason there is so much honking because at any given time the drivers want to let everyone else know where they are in case someone tries to merge or turn suddenly. I don't think I would go so far as to say that most people in India are safe drivers (because I don't think you can call someone who puts their baby on the handlebars of a bike a safe driver) but I think it's safe to say they are definitely very good drivers.  They pay attention, there isn't as much texting or messing around while driving, and have a pretty good judge of the space around them.  And this might have something else to do with why driving is so enjoyable here.  Rules are bent, twisted, forgotten, or just non-existent at certain points but that just means that most mundane actions you take up become less mechanical and require far more subtlety.  Not unlike Frogger there are obstacles everywhere you look and it requires you to be far more invested in what you are doing.   

               For example, yesterday I was in an auto that nearly took a cow's head off.  We were driving downtown when a cow taking a nap by the side of the road felt it was an appropriate time to start meandering around in traffic.  Thankfully this was near a busy intersection so most of the cars had all slowed down but it didn't help that our auto got boxed in between the cow and five other motorcycles.  I figured the driver would stop and wait for the other cars to go by but no he seemed confident that he had enough room to edge by.  I think I held my breath during that moment because if I wanted to I could stick my hand up and touch the cow's head.  I wouldn't even have had to put my hand out, all I would have had to do is lift it up. 

               Thankfully we managed to squeeze by because I don't know what I would do if I were in a vehicle that had just killed a cow in traffic.   Although people hit cows here a lot more than some might think.  There have been countless times where a truck or SUV accidentally "bumps" a cow from behind although neither the cow nor any passerby's seem to take much notice.  Suffice to say it's this type of encounter that can make driving in India somewhat frustrating; not to mention the incredible amount of black smoke coming out of everyone's exhaust and the constant roar of honking that's annoying enough to send even the best driver into a fit of road rage.  While it's easy for me now to say that everything I enjoy about India can be experienced while driving it's also very true that some of the most frustrating things about India happen while driving.  People cut you off, they box you in, the streets are over-flowing with cars, people, cows, marching bands, funeral processions, you name it; so it's easy to see how it can all become a little overwhelming.  And that's why once you overcome that sense of being overwhelmed, you know you have dug in a spot for yourself here.  At least that's how I've felt on the road. 

               I'm not sure how well this suits the purpose of the June narrative but at least for myself I've discovered that my new hobby has helped me reconcile quite a bit about India that I didn't completely understand at the beginning.  Which is why I think this topic is fitting for the end of my first year and I hope that it can also provide some insight for future fellows.