The World on Two Wheels

I learned to ride in India.

The chaos of the streets, the relentless chorus of honking horns, the disregard for traffic lanes, the sheer amount of vehicles and people and animals all sharing the same stretch of pavement was wild to me. I really had no business renting a motorcycle there, especially considering that I had never even ridden one. I was simply confident (or foolish) enough to think I could do it, so I tried. The YouTube video I watched the night before made it seem pretty easy, and in a place like Northern India no one bothered to ask if I had a motorcycle license in the first place. Perhaps my skin color was insurance enough for them.

Despite the false starts, serpentine roads, and left-hand traffic I very quickly felt at home on the back of that bike. Something about the experience was familiar to me. The congestion and the do-what-you-gotta-do approach to getting around reminded me so much of riding a bicycle through Manhattan --something I had done thousands of times before. When I thought of it like that, it's as if I instantly understood the rules of the road. It's not about traffic lights and right-of-way and turn signals. Honestly most of that doesn’t matter in India. Rather, it boils down to three things:

It's about being aware, being predictable, and being decisive.

. . .

Around sunset I rode back into the congested, mountainous streets of Manali. A local guy, who clearly was tired of walking up the steep hill took advantage of the stalled traffic and hopped onto the back of my bike. "My house is just a little further up this hill," he said as he situated himself on my bike. He never asked, and I hadn’t ever seen him before. It was merely expected that I would give him a ride since I had an open seat. That’s often how people interact in that part of the world. They treat complete strangers like a brother. It’s beautiful, confusing, remarkable, and aggravating all at the same time.

I thought about telling him off, explaining that I'm probably not the person he wants to hitch a ride with, but then I realized that one of two things would likely happen. Either it would become obvious to him that this is my first day riding a motorbike, in which case he might have a funny story to tell his friends. Or, he would think nothing of it, and I would feel proud for helping a stranger while learning something new. Either way, it was going to make an interesting story for one of us.