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Minimum training requirements for visa application for foreigners in India

Today morning which going to work, I saw near Avichi (a school near my place) was the Matha Amrithanantha Mayi's Trust (or Centre) and it seems she has come Chennai for two days. There were some vans parked on the road and some crowd near the place. Sitting in the front seat of the bus, I could see two foreigners trying to cross the road. Infact they were jaywalkng and one girl was afraid to even stand near the median. The other girl was brave and was pulling her away from the safe haven towards the side of the road.

All of this happened with a car and auto trying to have a race of "who would hit the girls first". I was amazed how the girls crossed the road as they probably wouldn't have experienced such random traffic in their country. I also pity the other girl who hesitated as she wouldn't stand a day alone without another local person helping her out with auto fares. That was when I thought that perhaps the embassy of their country should have some sort of training or simulation which the person must pass in order to get a visa.

The training should include things like:

  • basic knowledge of the seating arrangement in buses in various cities
  • rigourous training in crossing/walking on the streets and roads
  • training (and special license) to drive indian roads - especially during/after rain and flood, with buffaloes, cattle and other living human beings, etc
  • boarding a bus - like knowing to stand about 15 feet away from the bus stop so that you don't have to run behind the bus when the driver decides apply brakes a little later than needed
  • and most of all learning to catch an auto and getting away with a reasonable amount as fare. 

Of course this is only a beginner course, but this should be enough for a brief trip of a week or two. Anyway the real fun is to learn from experience. So, once you come here maybe you can ask some friends for some more tips about living (surviving and not going broke) in India.

Please leave comments if you think I have left out any training or tips.

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Filed under  //   foreigners   india   sarcasm   traffic  
Posted January 21, 2009
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Which side of the road to walk?

This has always been a point of argument with me and some of my friends when I walk with them. To understand this, you should have been to some place in India and tried walking on the roads (my experiences come mostly from Chennai). Indian roads are generally known for its bad drivers who has no lane discipline or the need for stopping before the stop line. Add some people walking on the roads and you get a classic problem of who has the right-of-way.

This might make some of you to wonder as to why can't people use the sidewalk (or pavement/footpath). The problem is, India isn't like most of the other countries. The sidewalk is filled with small shops which sell toys, rubber bands, bangles, etc., to the abundant deposit of urea caused by men taking a leak even as you stare at them with disgust. Sometime when the traffic is very high, this space is also taken up by bikes trying to reach the signal before the suckers who use the road. Also only some of the main roads have sidewalk and all the small streets and roads only have to make do with the fine dust laden road side.

So you have a to get down on to the street along with the other bikes and autos. Now that you have a rough understanding of the way Indian roads are used, walking on which side of the road gives you a higher probability of reaching your destination safely?

When I was a child, my father had always told me to walk on the right side of the road as it gives you a clear view of the vehicle which is going to hit you. This gives you two advantages:

  1. You can jump out of the vehicles' path as you can see it trying to mow you down before the sleeping driver realises that he is going to use a live human as a brake.
  2. If you are not fast enough to jump away, you can atleast get to see stunningly beautiful girl who drove the car and the license plate number (provided you don't get amnesia).
However many of my friends have a different view. They think/argue/fight that you should walk along with the other traffic. Reason being, on this side of the road, the driver gets to see that there is a stupid person speaking/texting on the cell phone, who doesn't care that he is walking in the middle of the road. On seeing this, they would stop just before them, wait till they walked to a considerable distance (so that he can hit the gas and ram them down and make sure they don't escape with just amnesia).

I am fine by their views as long as the driver does his job properly.

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Filed under  //   chennai   friends   india   traffic  
Posted January 19, 2009
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