My ode to Mark, the best driver in the whole world

Driving in India is an experience like no other. Generally driving in any other country is an adventure but I haven't seen anything like the Indian transportation experience anywhere I've ever been. I don't even really know where to begin describing it. The roads themselves are in bad shape in our area, if they are paved at all. Most places they are paved only wide enough for one vehicle. If they aren't paved they have deep canyons cut into the dirt where water has cut away any semblance of a level road. Most of the cars on the road keep their side mirrors tucked against the window because everyone passes so narrowly. Every road is an equal opportunity zone for pedestrians, motorbikes, cars, cows, dogs, trucks, trolleys, "autos" (a sort of three wheeled taxi, like a motorized rickshaw), pigs, army trucks, you name it. I haven't figured out why they bothered putting lines on the pavement because there is not even the beginning of a concept of lanes.

As an outside observer, my take on the culture so far is that there is a complete disregard for lines and waiting your turn. There just isn't such a thing as a "turn." Instead, there is a sort of acceptance that if you can physically fit in a place, it must be ok. If you don't physically fit, you find a way to push people/cars/anything but cows out of the way until you do. This follows in every situation. Whether you are at the bank or on the road, there is no such thing as waiting your turn, you just push to where you want to go. I guess it follows in a country with a billion people. If you didn't find your way to the front, you probably wouldn't get anything done. When we are driving, Mark is a champion. He can follow inches behind, scoot around with millimeters to spare, avoid, evade, u-turn, park, not kill animals or pedestians... its amazing how well he has adapted. I keep wanting to take a try behind the wheel but I have a feeling that it would take me about 10 minutes to cause a major trajedy.

I have a few favorite sights on the road. I love seeing women in their beautiful, flowing, feminine saris driving a motorcycle. I love that carpooling to school means piling as many of the neighborhood kids as can fit on one of the dad's motorcycles. I can't imagine my mom sending me off to second grade hanging precariously off the back of a motorcylce loaded with a man and four other kids! I love the entire families on motorcycles. Literally, dad is driving with one of the kids siting between him and the handle bars and mom and the two other kids are sitting behind him.

I honestly don't know how Mark navigates it all. And did I mention that he is driving a stick shift, driver seat on the right, shifting with the left hand on the wrong side of the road? This is my ode to Mark, the greatest driver in the entire world.