The problem with being in a place for a long time is that at a certain point you become "blind" to your surroundings.

I remember when I started my internship at GK Industrial Designers in Tokyo, Japan (longer ago than I care to remember...). My "big boss", Kenji Ekuan San, met with me the first day of my training and told me to go into the city and LOOK at it. Just look....suck in the impressions, nothing more. And then come back to him and report what I had seen. This was only possible in the beginning, he said, because only in the beginning my eyes would be fresh and my mind would be empty. A wise thought; but then, he is a Zen Buddhist.
So I went and I looked and I think I did not stop looking for the rest of my time there. It has been the most impressive time of my life and it has shaped me forever.

T and I have now been in India for 5 years, 2 months and 15 days....and I realise I have gone blind. I am seeing India through eyes that have seen it all before and with a mind that is prejudiced and not really open any longer. Understandable, after this time, but a pity nonetheless.
One should NEVER think one knows it all, because life will play a trick and suddenly things change and you find yourself in unfamiliar territory!

So I am pushing myself to start looking again.
And the first thing I noticed when I could look past the irritation of the constant honking around me (which I regard to be very uncivilised, impatient, and downright stupid) was this sign.... teaching road users what those coloured lights -that one can find occasionally on streetcorners- ACTUALLY MEAN!

And then I realised: 80% of the current road users do NOT have a driving license. Half of them probably can only barely read. In many cases the car or scooter they are driving is a step up from a bycicle or just plain walking, and they may very well be the first in the family who can afford a car or bike. So...can I blaim them for thinking that honking is part of normal driving? Or of the fact that if they don't honk they may very well be pushed off the road because the guy next to them never learned to look aside or use his mirrors before changing lanes? Is the fact that the Indians drive as they live -going with the flow and taking things as they come when they come- a bad thing or just a thing I cannot cope with, coming from an over-organised country and being a rather organised person myself?

I hate the traffic here, because it is chaotic, dangerous, and noisy. But looking at it the other way, it is also tolerant, seems to work somehow, and the Indians definitely manage to squeeze many more cars onto the square meter than we Dutch do. So it is not bad, it is just how Things Are in India.

For my remaing time here, I plan to keep my eyes open and my camera ready.....