It’s winter in Chennai or Madras as it was called. That means it is warm enough for shorts and a T-shirt and the heat won’t kill you.
But the taxi and auto rickshaw drivers may and that’s just touting for your business.
Among the chaos of bodies scrambling to pick-up their arrivals horns parp. And parp. And honk. Then some more peeps as we enter the traffic jam known as the car park to our taxi, a chunky old Ambassador with bolted to the front left wing a chunky blue mechanical meter.
Soon our driver joins the honking and parping. At each encounter as he weaves his way out of the airport, through some back roads, road works and finally on to the highway, us with a worms-eye view of the back end of large unlit trucks and a lung full of their fumes, he parps again and again. An auto rickshaw starts peeping back.
And more auto rickshaws swarming like cockroaches weave among the taxis, trucks and motorcycles, one driver sticking a bare foot out to kick another auto rickshaw away.
It’s an eye-opening introduction to India and we haven’t even started yet. Here you can check out my flickr stream of the trip or Youtube.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks, brilliant idea to youtube your films, moremoremore!
Ilva, will do. I’m just experimenting with this tiny recorder designed for Youtube but I’m dumping a lot rather than boring you.
Ed…
Thank you for all that you did with the Menu for Hope. The monies raised will go such a long ways for the children of Lesotho.
I have posted today for my many readers (that is very tongue in cheek) to leave a comment of thanks on your blog. You need to hear that you are appreciated.