Driving in Chennai (after 6 months)

That traffic cop is manually changing the light.

It's probably time for a review of my experiences driving in India. As terrifying as it was to begin... it quickly became second nature. In fact, in some ways, it's more pleasant than driving in the US. I mean, you have to laugh at randomly getting cut off or pedestrians risking their lives to let you test your brakes. However, there is something to be said for driving in a place where every driver is paying attention. In the US, we expect traffic rules and conventions to be followed to the letter, when they're not, we're often so zoned out that we crash before noticing the change. In Chennai, traffic and road conditions are a constantly changing thing that demands your attention the entire time. I just recently saw a man fixing a pot hole in the middle of the biggest intersection of the city, with traffic passing him in both direction, and I had little doubt that no one would hit him. Driving here isn't very hard, because the other people on the road are very forgiving of any mistakes you might make: Accidentally merge into someone? They're expecting it! Not sure if your unpowered light means it's red or green? If no one's coming, just go! The only exeptions to the forgiving traffic are the busses. Busses in Chennai would never get anywhere if they drove politely... so instead they just ignore all traffic that isn't the car in front of them. They will merge into you and run you off the road because, hey, THEY'RE A BUS. What, did you not see them!? 

Driving in India is much like downhill skiing in that you rarely have to consider the people behind you. Unless they honk... that's the common way of saying, "I'm here! Please don't hit me while I pass you!" The first time I was driven to work (months and months ago) and the driver forgot to unfold the sideview mirrors, I thought it was hilarious... now I know, you just don't have to worry about cars behind you, that's their job.

I have a feeling I'm going to miss the semi-lawless driving here, when I leave and am forced to regularly obey ALL traffic laws. On that note, I'll leave you with an AMAZING ARTICLE on the unwritten rules of driving in India and a couple of "pro-tips." 

Pro Tip #1: In India you drive on the left... Unless you're driving in the wrong lane of a divided road... Then the best practice is to drive on (your) right. Now it makes sense why all the locals told me to "just stay to the right (of the left side of the road) and you'll be fine." There are fewer people driving in the wrong direction or boldly just pulling out whenever the heck they feel like it when you bear right. 
Pro Tip #2: If someone flashes their high beams at you here it means, "I'm going for it! You better get out of my way." I definitely pissed off a few people before I learned THIS.

Indian Driving License

Lock up your children and hide your pets, because I can officially drive in India! After many months of waiting (read: procrastinating), I finally applied for and got my "India Driving Licence (Tamilnadu)." I immediately flexed my newfound power by driving to work the rest of the week. 

My first impression of driving in India: Holy Crap! It's a heady mix of terror and exhilaration as you pretty much drive like a maniac and magically everyone around you anticipates your movements and casually drives around you. Don't get me wrong, it's not like there are no road rules. There are obviously tons of them, they're just unspoken... and I don't know them all (yet). For example, in the US you would never make a person going straight stop to let you turn onto the road. Here, there's no need to come to a complete stop before your turn... essentially ever. If that makes traffic stop to let you in, so be it.

Honking has different expectations here also. Motocycles ("two wheelers") regularly honk just to verify that you know they're there. With lanes being a fluid concept here, it makes sense that the 'little guys' are the most vocal. The cacophany of horns is a little confusing at first, but makes sense pretty quickly. Flashing your brights here means the opposite of what it does in the US, which was also confusing for me at first. It essentially means, "I'M GOING FOR IT!"

Writing about driving in India always makes it sound so bad, but honestly it's not. After five months in country, I have yet to see an accident! I'm told they're mostly caused by trucks and buses, generally at night, and in less urban areas. That makes total sense to me, because traffic does not move quickly here. I almost exclusively drive in first or second gear, and I rarely have the occasion to make it all the way up to third.

It's strangely liberating to be able to drive again... next challenge: getting gas!

Two Years in India, Week 1

There are huge trees all over the place.
(even in the street!)

Well, it's official. One week down, 103ish to go. That makes it sound like I can't wait to leave, which isn't right. I just was surprised when I realized that I'm pretty much 1% done with my first post. Really makes me think I can't waste a moment here!

I've had a number of first weeks at a new job, in my career, but this one was pretty different from all the others. First of all, I've never started a new job while at the same time combating jet lag. I've never really had a problem with adjusting my sleep schedule in the past, but I've also never had to do so while also caring for a not-yet-two-year-old. My son is completely oblivious to the concept of jet lag, so he pretty much sleeps whenever he wants. Fortunately, (for me) my wife has been playing with him when he's up in the middle of the night so that I would be awake and functioning for work. Of course, sleep is only one of the differences at this job. There's also taking a shuttle, living in a new place, meeting a workforce that is about to turn over by 50%, and heck, even experiencing new foods! Let's not get too far ahead though. 

I have just a three week overlap with the IMS I'm replacing here in Chennai. Since his boss, the IPO, left a week before I arrived, he's been showing me the ropes. It has been very interesting to see the similarities and differences between our training and what actually seems to be happening at post. The biggest difference I've noticed (especially when compared to my pre-Foreign Service jobs) is that almost all of the day-to-day work is handled quite capably by the Locally Employed Staff (LES) here. This means that the IMS, such as myself, tend to roam from project to project, working on whatever unusual or one-off problem that arises. A good example from this week: our AC units for the server room broke, leading us to spend a couple hours on the roof with the repair crew (a real pleasure in the Chennai heat!). 

Another shot of the crazy amount of trees.

Anyway, my predecessor arranged a "going away/welcome" lunch with me and all the LES working in our department. It was a great opportunity to meet everyone and I'm now planning to do the same thing when the new IPO arrives. Other than that, I've been eating lunch in the canteen. The lunch combo there costs 50 rupees (rs, approximately 85 cents) and consists of rice, chapati,  raita, and two gravies (which we'd call curry back in the States) that change daily. Everything is vegetarian and tastes alright, but you really can't beat the price! In the afternoon, I normally swing back down for chai to the tune of 7 rs (~12 cents). 

I ended up working a lot of extra hours this week, mostly due to my incredibly early shuttle-dictated arrival time. I don't mind the extra work, but it did kind of stink to get out right around when it was getting dark - really put a damper on my ability to take photos to send home. Of course, on the flip side, I also spent most of the week without internet (except at work), so I guess it didn't really matter!

Traffic on July 4th.
Fortunately, the jam only lasted half an hour.

Friday was the 4th of July, so we had the day off. The Consul General hosted a party at her residence with burgers, hot dogs, and a pie bake-off. I don't know about the pies' owners, but I'd say everyone that got to eat them was a winner. We also saw our future car (my son fully approved!) and met our soon-to-be driver. I had originally hesitated getting a driver, but after spending a week in traffic here... I'm glad we pre-arranged one. I'll post more about traffic later. 

Enjoy some random pictures of Chennai!

Small shrine in Alwarpet.

Week 14 of Training: SIMOPS Continued

Today marked the end of an era. "What era?," you might ask. Why the era of the IMS core training for the Foreign Service 132nd Specialist Class. Yeah, I guess that is oddly specific for an era. Anyway, we finished up our last day of SIMOPS today. This is a mixed blessing. On the plus side, we're that much closer to going overseas. On the minus side, we have no excuse if we're awful at our jobs... I'm kidding of course, there's always an excuse.

The rest of the week was pretty standard. We had two days of 'open scheduling' when we could spend time with any of our instructors, if we wanted/needed extra training. The other two days we spent furiously trying to remember things we'd learned weeks and months ago. The whole process was pretty relaxed, so I'd hesitate to call it a "final" for our training, but we did brush on everything we'd learned. Tomorrow is mostly a day off; there will be a graduation ceremony for us in the afternoon, followed by some socializing.

For me, today marks my last day battling traffic to arrive at FSI before our 9am start time. Tomorrow I'll leave well after traffic has cleared up, and my last few weeks are full of consultation days and class at Main State. I can't say I'll miss the 2 - 4 hours a day of mind numbing traffic. I was fortunate to receive a parting gift from the commute though: when I went to change my destination in the WAZE navigation app, I received a ticket for texting while driving. That seemed fitting for my last day.

Week 3 of Training: How to Commute!

Ostensibly the second week of training (for my quarter of the cohort) was about communication systems. It was taught by DTS-PO, and I'll let you read about what they do, if you so desire. The training was good, albeit a little lengthy for the amount of material being covered. We were learning about a system that none of the six of us have ever used, so it was definitely worth while, but...

For me, week two was a valuable lesson in how awful commuting can make my life. The traini
ng was not held at FSI, but rather at an offsite location even further from my house. Class started at 8, so I was fortunate enough to miss most of the morning traffic, leaving myself only an hour and a half drive. I was not so fortunate on the way home. My best day was just over two hours, and my worst was almost three and a half. Fortunately, the weather did me a favor and provided our THIRD snow day of the year on Monday. I'll be honest though, it was hard to feel too lucky on Wednesday when I was passing the 5 hour mark of 'commute time' for the day. <start rant> I was also a little bitter because they wouldn't give me mileage for the extra drive distance because it should be covered by the per diem that I don't get as a local hire! <end rant>