I guess we were blessed

Diwali in Udaipur

All the Diwali celebrations and newspaper reports remind me of our time in Udaipur (the Octopussy city – and still cashing in on it). We arrived in Udaipur after a traumatic overnight coach journey. You are supposed to sleep on such journeys but, with front seat views and a chaotic driver, sleep was never going to be easy. (Perhaps I have always had insomnia?)

            It was on this journey that I first encountered communal women’s toilets – this had always been a recurring dream of mine so I was understandably astounded to find that they actually exist (I just hope the monsters under the bed, the plane crash in my back yard and the day when all my teeth fall out simultaneously don’t turn out likewise). I had thought that this was going to be the worst part of the journey but I was wrong.

            Like all journeys by coach in India, and indeed most of South East Asia, it was carried out to the soundtrack of Hindi music and incessant horn blowing. The music I don’t mind – though it isn’t well loved when you are trying to sleep on an overnight journey – the horns are another matter. Sure, in the daytime you can get over them and it is only the dull ringing in your ears as you retire to the bar for a teatime beer that reminds you of the cacophony. At night it is another matter. It’s not the fact that they’re blowing them that matters – it’s the why.

            In India they generally drive at night with their lights extinguished (actually, I’m going back ten years now so perhaps they’ve updated their safety regs – you could Google it and let me know). I think it is to save fuel and prevent light pollution – I’m only guessing. So they blow their horns at night to warn of their advance and, should they hear a horn, they generally fire their lights onto main-beam in a last ditch attempt to avert a crash. It’s fun (in a kind of Tarantino, black humour kind of way) – imagine, you’re pounding down a rough road, headlights off, interior lights on and suddenly your driver lights his lights – just as the driver in the oncoming coach lights his. You don’t sleep.

            We passed a crash on the journey – we should not have passed the crash – we were in a huge tailback. But our driver decided he wasn’t being part of the tailback and instead pulled onto the opposite side of the road and passed every car, van, wagon etc. At one point we were in a stand-off with another wagon, coming (quite legitimately) in the other direction – on a head-on course for us. Our driver won. So we arrived in Udaipur, as scheduled, at 5 in the morning.

            I guess we were blessed.

            Tomorrow I will actually write about Diwali. We were blessed then too.