Maps

Maps are rarely used or understood by Mumbaikers. If you show taxi or rickshaw drivers a map, they stare at it blankly and have no idea how to read it. The end result of this is that they tend to know one or two ways of getting from A to B. Typically my husband has his nose in a map whenever we go anywhere; he likes to know where we are, where we are going, and how we get there. So when we asked the driver to take us to a particular place, and he started driving all over the city rather than using the most direct route, my husband took over and started to direct him. At one point my husband said,
"Turn left here, it's only a few blocks over."
The driver replied,
"No, sir, I have to drive straight here then turn around and drive back."
My husband said,
"No you don't, the map says that you can go this way."
The driver said,
"Sorry, sir, but it is this way."
The debate continued for a bit until my husband told the driver to turn and we'd just see where it got us. So the driver turned, and a few blocks later we pulled into the driveway of our destination. The driver then apologized and said that he hadn't gone that way before.

So this whole problem of not reading maps is, I'm convinced, the source of the traffic problems in Mumbai. Or at least in Bandra. Because once you get off the main road and snake through the back roads there is rarely much traffic. We once had a replacement driver who could get us anywhere at anytime in good time because he knew all the back alleys and short cuts in the area. Of course he was grumpy most days, he spoke hardly any English, and he hit the potholes so hard I thought the car would roll over.

Here is a story that I was told by an ex-pat who visited Mumbai. He said that this occurred to him, and he is not one to tell lies for the benefit of entertainment.

My friend was going to a dinner party so he took a rickshaw to get to the apartment but the rickshaw driver didn't know where the place was exactly. So my friend hopped out and decided he would find out where it was. He went up to a a group of guys and asked if they knew where this place was, through broken English and lots of repetition they understood what he wanted to know. So they all started talking in Hindi, explaining the directions. They tried to understand each other, but to no avail. Finally my friend asked if they could draw a map. They looked at him blankly. He pulled out a bit of paper and a pencil and asked them if they could draw a map - show him how he should walk to get to his friends house. The men still looked at him strangely, one repeated his request, and my friend nodded and said yes. The men talked with each other in Hindi, and finally chose one person to write. After 10 minutes of talking back and forth and concentrated drawing, they handed him over the 'map.' It was a picture of a road, with buildings on each side, and a stick figure walking down the street. All cartoon, no labels, just a picture, exactly as he had told them, showing him walking down the street to get to his friend's place.

I wonder what those guys thought of my friend - probably that he was very strange. They probably tell the story from a completely different perspective on their blogs.