Making do What India lacks in amenities it makes up for in traffic flow
McGowan, Jo
OF SEVERAL MINDS JO McGOWAN MAKING DO The virtues of underdevelopment As a child, one of my favorite books was Half Magic by Edgar Eager. It was about four children who find a coin that grants...
...Most times, it is so low that the computer won't come on, the toast won't stay down, the kettle takes an hour to boil, and the lights are so dim we need candles to read by...
...seems to give us gratitude and versatility: both fine wishes to be granted.o be granted...
...But my children and their friends glide serenely into the confusion, eyes moving all the time, anticipating the motorcycle whose presence they have registered without actually seeing it, sidestepping the rickshaw making an illegal right turn, pivoting just in time to avoid being swiped by the bus, and arriving safely on the other side, still carrying on the conversation they began before taking the plunge...
...All in one week...
...The funny part is that we have our own good back-up system which provides bright lights and music that doesn't sound funereal, but it only kicks in if the electricity is actually off...
...A person from a one-horse village would be as ill-prepared...
...Growing up as I did in a country where traffic moves in accordance with predictable, consistent rules, I am unable to negotiate the entirely random patterns here...
...Electricity...
...So we have some people stopping compliantly while others erupt in fury at the idiots in front of them braking for no reason...
...It's a gift...
...Half magic (as long as we survive it...
...My own children can thread their way through traffic snarls so crazy they seem more like video games than reality...
...In a capital city of 800,000...
...Middle- and upper-class people wanted cars, poorer people wanted scooters and motorcycles...
...And when all the lights turn red to allow for pedestrians, total confusion descends with everyone assuming the system has broken down and it's back to the survival-of-the-fittest routine...
...But no one remembered to ask for roads wide enough to support them all...
...Everyone got what they wished for...
...But we forgot to ask that it be supplied at full voltage...
...We used to have power cuts of six to eight hours a day, especially in the summer, and we all wished fervently for a twenty-four-hour supply...
...Take the traffic...
...It was about four children who find a coin that grants them their wishes, but only halfway...
...It is a skill, practiced every day in such a wide variety of circumstances, that has made them adept in many other situations as well...
...The pandemonium-for every horn must blare-cannot be imagined...
...And adaptability...
...Living in an in-between world teaches us to treasure things when they are working well...
...This keeps you humble...
...If you never have it, you don't miss it because your world is constructed on different premises...
...There have to be lessons...
...And though it may be annoying when it isn't available, you don't feel indignant because you don't think of it as your birthright...
...The muddles these four get into until they figure out the tricks of doubling what they ask for are hilarious (it's not as simple as it seems), and the lessons they learn along the way about what they think they want are subtle and lovely...
...But no one remembered to make a wish that people would obey them...
...What are the lessons in all of this...
...Here in India, especially in relatively small cities like Dehra Doon, it feels like half magic a lot of the time and the only way to live through the muddles is to be determined to find them funny...
...Appreciation and adaptability...
...If you have electricity all the time, you take it for granted and don't even notice its existence...
...So we got traffic lights (Three...
...Or there are those who halt for a minute or so but then decide that enough is enough and drive right through, fighting for their chance with the opposing traffic...
...We learn to make the best of things...
...You never stop feeling grateful for it...
...Half magic...
...It has to be seen and heard to be believed: bullock carts vying for space with buses, trucks edging out small children on bicycles, and families of five perched precariously on motorcycles, swerving through the chaos with practiced ease...
...Now that we are the capital of our new state, we have gotten our wish, electricity almost round-the-clock...
...Without defending for a moment the chaos of India's roads, one cannot but admire the resourcefulness and split-second timing of the people who grow up using them...
...But if you have it only sometimes, you realize what a miracle it is...
...I cower at the edge of the road, waiting in vain for a Boy Scout to help me cross...
...With all those vehicles on the road, everyone wished that the traffic would move in an orderly fashion...
Vol. 129 • March 2002 • No. 6
