BERT VERDONCK, lifehacker & life coach

Lost in translation?

Where do you go if you want to get somewhere in Mumbai? You just take a taxi or a riksha. It is a known fact that drivers have no clue where you are going at (ever seen 18 million people in 1 city?), but they just say “yes” anyway. A normal conversation goes like this (“mei Hindi bhasja siek ta hoon” = I am learning to speak Hindi): “Namasté, je address malum hai?” (do you know where this address is?) “Yes, Sir, Sahib, Sir!” “Je meter pe tchalno?” (go by the meter, yes the one instead of the mirror “Yes, Sir, Sahib, Sir!”

You feel comfortable, or at least you try to (we are too big for those small cars) and they take off on a death ride as my friend Bert B. is calling it? After a couple of blocks you feel that they are on the wrong way already, but how do you explain that (I should go to advanced Hindi lessons now!)?

Imagine 2 big European guys, cramped in the backseat of a taxi, explaining the way in a foreign city, in one or more “strange” languages. Add a generous mix of bikes, motorcycles, busses, trucks, cows (the only undamaged vehicles in this city) and some strange unidentified objects (used to be cars) on the road. On a 2 lane street we are with 6 cars next to each other (what is a pavement for?) all using their horns. Oops, was that a hole in the road? Damn, those taxiroofs are pretty hard! Oh, did I mention those hundreds of loose, wild humans crossing the street at the same time without looking?

Welcome in Mumbai!

Anyway, we got back to the hotel safely.
Time to study some Hindi, we definitely need it!

Bert