You May Be Dead...

But Thank God it's not Fatal!

One might make the assumption from reading this sign that there have been no accidents whatsoever, in Bangalore in the past three years! One might also be led to believe that there are *Traffic Rules*... and that perhaps one's career potential might be fulfilled if one were to do the needful and FOLLOW THE DAMN RULES. Not only can you evade death, nonfatal or otherwise, but you can expect to climb the corporate ladder at high speed...

Convenient. Now, If only we knew what the rules might be...

Rules which can encompass the bus trying to run me off the road; the motorbike, weaving into and out of the smallest centimeter of space; the hugely colorful truck bearing down the wrong side of the road with apparent homicidal intent; the chai and chaat wallahs pushing their wheeled carts sloooowwwly yet industriously along; the bicycle bucket man, buckets stacked 8 feet wide; the traffic "cop" with his 10 gallon hat, wearing the dust and smog-avoiding surgeon's mask and collecting "tips" on the corner; the blessed cow lounging peacefully in the center of insanity; the small herd of goats, hungry pack of feral dogs, and ambitiously hopeful rooster hopping frantically from garbage pile to sewage sludge; the racketeered-child beggar performing tricks in the middle of traffic, the rickshaw man, who might-stop-if-he-hit-you, as long as you agree to visit his friend's, uncle's, sister's, cousin's shop which is going out of business and has everything marked down 100% just for YOU; over 8 million pedestrian out perambulating all at once (footpaths? Are you kidding? Let me know when you find one that's less dangerous than the road!) and me, being competitively driven about in my shiny Innova, leaning out of my car window, misguidedly attempting to photograph the "real" India!

The Fischers
confounded by signage...
in India