Seattle University Spectator

Issue: 7/14/08 Section: summer in india

Interpersonal communication continues to fascinate me both as an observer as well as an aspiring academic. I am an avid people watcher, and I pride myself in my ability to read between the lines. However, upon arriving in Bombay, I was befuddled by the constant honking by taxis and "two wheeler" motorcycles in traffic. In the U.S., the use of your horn generally denotes your dissatisfaction with the drivers and/or the pedestrians who have somehow managed to wrongly cross your path. Mumbaikars employ the horn for this application as well but also utilize it in a vastly different manner.

The some 44,000 taxi drivers of Bombay employ the horn as a pseudo-sonar device. As a cabbie is flying down the crowded streets, disregarding the use of turn signals, hand signals and lane demarcations, honking is the only "safety" precaution he uses. Each driver in this city uses a kind of "drive by honk" method, where if they are drifting too close to another car, a honk can startle the offending driver away, and therefore avoid a crash. While weaving in and out of traffic, the taxicab driver always has his hand positioned just centimeters from the horn, ready in case any cars or pedestrians get too close so he can warn them of his presence. This omnipresent honking enables cars and people to work fluidly together, each knowing when to move and more importantly, when not to.

While being taxied around crowded Mumbai in the tiny black and yellow Fiat cabs, the standard 20-25 m.p.h. seems like 80 on the 520 bridge during rush hour back home in Seattle. The only thing between a car crash or hit-and-run and safety is that little noisemaker positioned in the middle of the steering wheel. In our increasingly globalized world, it is curious to see how inventions like cars can be introduced into different cultures and societies with varying results. In the U.S., we kindly stay between the lines and avoid interaction like the plague, while here in India people are more than happy to openly communicate and work together, much like the parts of well-oiled machine.

This bizarre but efficient use of nonverbal communication seems to work for this city of millions--and with few casualties. Then again, this is only my fifth day in this city, and I have already been in a minor crash involving two cab drivers. I guess the age-old Roman saying still applies in our modern world: when in Bombay, do as the Bombayites do...or else you may just get run over!


SIDENOTE: Unfortunately, my wireless camera transfer is not working since we are currently outside of the U.S., so my video footage, as well as my still shots of Mumbai madness cannot be viewed presently. However, I found a video that illustrates my point well enough. Here is the link for some taxicab honking footage, courtesy of babydinosaur on Youtube:



About the Summer in India blog:
All of 19 Seattle University students are right now roaming the streets of Mumbai, India, watching and telling the story of globalisation and mass media in this country with multiple realities.
This is a Study Abroad program titled "Mass Media in Modern India," directed by Prof. Sonora Jha from The Department of Communication. Students are visiting sites that powerfully show a media and a country in transition. They are meeting top journalists from The Times of India and The Hindu, watching TV show shootings by MTV India and NDTV, Bollywood, documentary and independent filmmakers. They are attending classes with Indian students of mass media, through the Jesuit school, Xavier's Institute of Communication and through Sophia Polytechnic's program titled Social Communications Media. And, more than anything else, as one of them says, they are arriving into the world, growing up in every single moment. They welcome your comments on their blog posts.

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