When in Rome do as the Romans do

Posted on Mar. 1, 2010 at 09.30 PM - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This proverb has been traced back to fifteen century, and first cited in the United States in 1885. However, I just came to fully understand the meaning of it when I was in Chennai. It was when I had a trip with Alex White to Pondicherry which is around 2-hour drive from fisherman's cove hotel which we stayed. On our way back to hotel, we could not help but to discuss the driving style over here in Chennai.

The drivers over here tend to honk a lot. They honk when they see people or animal crossing the street. They honk when there is car in front of them, or they are not given way. They honk when they see car stop by on the road side, pedestrian walking or animal grazing on the road side. Some time they honk for no obvious reason. For them, honking the horn it's just simply a means of communication, to tell people or animal that they are coming.

"In UK, you are considered rude if you honk, but in India, you are considered rude if you don't honk", Alex concluded. That's very true for at least these 2 reasons below:

1. The pedestrian over here can just simply cross the street at any time they want. If they don't hear any horn, they would readily conclude it's safe to cross the street. So, you must inform your existence by honking your horn :)

2. Lack of street lighting. This is especially true when you are driving in the evening on the country side where there are no proper street lights installed. You could hardly see people or animal crossing the street (this could be the reason why most of the drivers over here use high beam head lights). So, for the safety reason, again you must honk a lot.

In conclusion, if you really want to drive a car in India, which I don't really recommend though, you really have to behave like the drivers over here. Honk a lot or you end up having trouble in the street.

Life is beautiful! Let's make it meaningful and colorful!