Saturday, December 29, 2007

Two's company, three's a fine, and six's an accident waiting to happen



















Click on the photo to see a larger image.

I shot this sign at a traffic signal under a flyover. According to it, "Triple Riding" has a fine of Rs 250. It is very common to see three youngsters riding on a motorcycle, or a family of two adults and two kids, usually without a helmet. I don't quite know what "Lane Crossing" is in the sign above. I assume it means you are crossing the line at the signal, not really "lane". There is absolutely no lane discipline anywhere.

The building in the background is the Secretariat, where the state government offices are located. The other day there was quite a scare in this building as one young man was seen throwing his cell phone and three small paper bags. People who saw the man dump his cell phone ran fearing there must be a bomb somewhere as cell phone activated bombs are used in most bombings in the country. Police ran after the man and apprehended him outside and everything became clear. It turned out that three people had lost their jobs somewhere in the state and they had come to the Secretariat with some cash in paper bags in the hope of getting their jobs back. Two of them had left their paper bags with this one young man and went off for a cup of tea. The remaining young man was watching a blue film on his phone and when he saw some cops he got scared that they would catch him with it. So he dumped the cell phone and the bags along with it.


In the photo below, which a reader of the popular local newspaper Deccan Chronicle shot, not three but SIX people are riding on one motorcycle, none of them with a helmet. I wonder if there is a fine for this, or they just confiscate the license or bike....... Anyway, the fines are usually "settled" on the spot by paying a smaller amount and you don't get a receipt.
























"Do you know anything on earth which has not a dangerous side if mishandled and exaggerated?" -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist



10 comments:

Web-OJ said...

Reminds me of my college days when 4 of us females would go on my bike to the masala dosa guy, 500 metres down the lane. Jai Hind!

sam said...

hehe, seems like some things are the same wherever you go! Here it is minibus taxis, designed to hold 16 but often seen with as many as 27 passengers!! The other day someone left a box at the PE airport, the police blew it up, suspecting a bomb, but it turned out to be a TV set!

Olivier said...

Meilleurs Voeux pour 2008
amour et tendresse, Amedée et moi te souhaitons tous nos vœux pour cette
nouvelle année 2008. Alors champagne pour tous le monde.......

Best Wishes for 2008
Love and tenderness, Amedée and I wish you all our wishes for this
New Year 2008. So champagne for all the world .......


Evry Daily Photo

Ash said...

Happy New Year!!! Have a wonderful 2008 :-)

Sunkyoung said...

Happy Great New Year!

From Sunkyoung in Seoul

b.c. said...

The photo of the street sign is very interesting and so is the photo of the six on the motorcycle--great story too.

Happy New Year and all the best in 2008!

zakscloset said...

despite all the chaos that goes on over there, i hope you had wonderful holidays! happy new year! i'm looking forward to reading your educational columns in 2008!

Kunal Bhatia said...

wow, 6 people on a bike is really crazy...
traffic police are forced to get stringent, just yesterday 4 of 6 youngsters in a car died after they were driving at 200kmph in south mumbai's marine drive and had to suddenly break.. its crazy, 200kmph in a city like mumbai even in the wee hours....
Mindless Mumbai

julia said...

Motor bikes and Vespars - cool. We are over regulated with controls. BTW Milk was contained in sachets here in 1980s or so but that changed to plastic bottles and home deliveries seemed to have finished up several years ago.

Jules said...

Great post - good to catch up with all your great posts!!

Here in Rabaul I've seen 25 people in the back of a utility sedan.