Monsoons, Indian Taxis, and Karma

An integral part of both Hindu and Buddhist traditions is the concept of Karma - the sum all one's actions, and how these actions affect their past and present experiences. Judging from our experiences with Indian taxis so far, I believe that I am seriously short on good Karma.

During my first night in Delhi with KT, our cab driver ran out of gas on the highway, at least 20km from our hotel. With rickshaws, cars, and commercial trucks honking and whizzing around our tiny stalled sedan, the driver coasted on fumes for about half a mile before I had to jump out help him push the car through a series of mud puddles onto the nearest median (keep in mind, this is a cab which the Hilton Trident Gurgaon - a $400 a night, 5-star hotel - called for us). Frustrated with the driver's lack of a cell phone and non-attempts at finding a solution to the sort-of-important gas problem, we abandoned him and the sedan and flagged down one of the dusty auto-rickshaws whizzing past us on the highway. KT and I eventually made it to our hotel and wrote the experience off as something that must happen once to everyone that visits India. Little did we know, this is something that happens not once-in-a-lifetime, but more likely once-in-a-week.

(A week later) Last night, KT and I arrived in Bombay from Aurangabad. Normally we would have taken a 25 rupee autorickshaw to the train station then a 7 rupee commuter train south to Victoria Station. It would have been a sweaty, crowded, and dirty journey, but much shorter (1 hour vs. 2.5) than the 400 rupee cab right to Colaba. However, when we arrived at BOM, the monsoon was in full effect and we decided that keeping our bodies and our packs dry was well worth the extra 1.5 hours and 350 rupees ($9). At least with an official (and metered) airport taxi, we knew what'd we'd be getting, or did we... About 5km into our 20km total journey from the airport, our rickety black and yellow Ambassador cab stalled, again in the middle of the highway at night, but this time in the middle of monsoon rains. Once again, cars were whizzing by us, but this time so were sheets of pelting horizontal rain. After about ten minutes of failed starts, tweaks to the vehicle's choke, and waiting, the car was moving again. Unfortunately, only first gear was working; however, KT and i were elated just to be back on the road and not sitting like soggy ducks in the middle of the highway.

Our driver, who spoke about as much English as we spoke Hindi, was clearly as frustrated with his car as we were with him. After at least and hour of driving in first gear through the rain, starting, stopping, waiting, countless right turns, and several failed attempts at taking his cab to a late night mechanic (with us in the back) we found ourselves back on the road, stalled in the rain, 3 hours and about 4 miles from the airport. I set my watch and after ten minutes of silently waiting, donned my rain coat and stepped out in the steamy rain storm rain to flag a cab. I was quickly soaked but found a replacement driver after about 5 minutes.

The young driver from our first failed attempt initially demanded 500 rupees for the 3 hour joy ride that had taken us no where (we could still see advertisements for the airport). In our ongoing, fruitless attempts to encourage better business among the mayhem, KT and I were happy to give him nothing. Eventually, we begrudgingly left him with 200 rupees after our new driver refused to drive away and our old driver refused to stop yelling at me in Hindi about how the meter really said that we owed twice what the guidebook said was the going rate.

Eventually KT and I made it to the hotel and drowned the experience in a delicious European cafe dinner at Basilico's. We're headed to the Bombay airport again tomorrow on our way to Bangkok, however this time I'm pretty happy to say we probably won't be taking a cab.

Make sure to check the flickr gallery.

(Bombay Taxi)

(Indian Autorickshaw)

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