Impressions from the road in India

The view from the bus
D. Thompson

Our time in India outside of the conference was crucial to our experience, but also far too short. Much like life at Hotchkiss, during our time at Mayo College we existed in a "bubble" made up of an oasis-like campus, beautiful facilities, and the familiar faces and actions of boarding school life.

Before describing some of what we saw on the road, it is worth mentioning that there is a river of outside life that bisected the Mayo campus. Between the boys college and the girls college, there is a narrow street, with traffic hurtling between the whitewashed walls of the two schools. After walking across the quiet campus, you emerge from a gate to find Indian Police officers waving at you to stop while they try and halt the torrent of bikes, motorcycles, three wheeled cabs, and black and yellow taxis that rush by the gates. When deep in conversation, this was all the more startling, as the buzz and roar of engines replaced bird calls and the whirring and clank of bicycles, the sounds of campus.

Our time in the bus traveling from Ajmer to Jaipur and then to Agra was full of motorized life as well. The presence of tractors - as a means of transportation - was particularly striking - we went through an intersection in Jaipur, and waiting at the red light were a couple of cars, some three-wheeled cabs, many motorcycles, and a tractor.

Another vehicle that impressed was what appeared to be partially completed trucks and buses - the chassis, wheels, and exposed engine, a seat, and the steering wheel and pedals, and that was it. No body, no roof over the driver, and sometimes no windshield or just a windshield in front of the driver...

We saw plenty of motorcycles with women riding "side saddle" in brightly colored saris, or crowded with groups of friends (three or four), or an entire four person family - with the infant child propped up in front of the father, and if they reached, their hands on the handlebars. Impressive balance from an early age!

We passed the occasional car stuffed to the gills with people - we passed one four door car that had close to 20 people in it, some standing on the back bumper, and leaning to hang on to the roof rack.

Many buses went by with fifteen or twenty people sitting on the roof - our guide told us that they also paid full fare to sit up there...

The long distance trucks were very impressive, with multicolored paint jobs, and pinstriping, and multiple mirrors and decorative lights, and some variation of "Horn Please" painted on to the tailgate. My favorite was a truck that said "Horn Do."

We also saw many camel-drawn carts, and as we passed through small towns, saw camels tied up on the side of the road - they would laconically glance at the bus as it passed, and their enormous, limpid eyes and long lashes brought to mind makeup commercials.

Also impressive was the painting of animals - a herd of sheep with bright pink dots sprayed on their backs, and in some cases, their foreheads painted as well; cows who had had their horns painted red; elephants with painted, patterned, decorations on their foreheads and down their trunks...

As we went through the small towns, there were always many, many people on the sides of the road - often sitting together around stalls and shops, and almost all male. It was rare to see more than five or ten women as we passed through any of the towns, but there were always hundreds of men.

We continued to remark on how many businesses there were, but how little evidence there was that any transactions were taking place - it was rare to see any shopkeeper wrapping goods, or taking money.

Because it was Divali, there were numerous sweets stalls set up - large displays of brightly colored small cakes - like petit fours - in yellows and oranges with green highlights. The stalls - and many of the brick and mortar store fronts - had garlands of marigolds draped over their facades, and there were lights strung around the businesses as well.

The roadside temples were interesting as well - beehive shaped roofs, and lights, and often someone inside making their offering to the particular god of the temple. Peering inside, the god was decorated with garlands of marigolds, and had other flowers at their feet - golden Ganeshas (elephant shaped god) and Hanumans (monkey-faced god) and Shivas (multi-armed female god).

We passed fields, and small rural villages, and modern gas stations, and brick yards with their five story chimneys, and the occasional pack of monkeys...

There is so much more to relate - as one student said on a previous trip to India  - "I thought I would get a lot of homework done when we were driving, but I just couldn't stop looking out the window..."