OCR Text |
Show INDIA'S TRAFFIC VIOLATORS, R OA D II O G S A L L WJ fyM Impolite Elephants, Arrogant Camels, Stubborn Bullocks tyffl I 'r American in Maxwell Car tj-t '' Makes 1682-Mile Trip from 7$2ft Bombay to Delhi and Has rf- : One Thrilling Experience 1 1 Ab" After Another. ljH. Jit It. RICARDO fc ; ' Manager, Automobile Company, Ltd. ' L.j.j.i. Bombay, India "TAlIE American motor car owner j who complains about city street j 5T V and country highway satura- j lVv. 1 tion should take a cross country trip L. through India. " luve US ente a 1,682-mile tr'Pi starting from Bombay, and I i fcC encountered some of the finest roads i '"cv.'j hi the world and some of the worst. ( ' ' -v'.v-' J A common obstacle on an Indian ' ..1 road is a caravan of bullocks and j ' fJc k cartfl Bullocks travel much like a ' (" - yk -'V f x I IfVfllA,, 'ff ; '1 1 AT s ' llwl n$l I f' rV i V i s. hi- ' rvi ; Ml Ferries are rather flimsy, and the river journey becomes quite perilous f I ElepHants are uninstructed in road courtesy, and may be called obstructions, and camels are curious, curi-ous, a bit arrogant, and quite without motor manners. road courtesy and they take up about 90 per cent, of the road by sheer bulk and 10 per cent, by swaying sway-ing from side to side. They should be equipped with bumpers. A friend of mine driving an open car with the top up once tried to pass an elephant and still keep on the road. As the car passed, the elephant ele-phant swayed and the car bumped the elephant's legs. The elephant road hog then showed further discourtesy. dis-courtesy. With his trunk he snatched off the car top and hurled it rods away. Taking wrong roads means encountering en-countering bad roads. The worst roads are through the villages narrow nar-row and badly worn. Roads between be-tween villages, less used, are in better bet-ter condition. In the villages one jr,frMr3 f $c car, I jsport, ghts of shippers . 1 .5vJ promoting public l& kp be nts abroad were but Dlic attention and Sglhub America entering , I lY , I Bullocks are stubborn, and untrained in right of way. . i . 1 or' ' 3 caps immediately. A good car, such es we used, may make the passage without the aid of the many natives who are anxious to pick up a little easy money by hauling you out. Some of the streams are too deep to ford so one must make use of the native ferries, which are enlarged en-larged punts. One ferry that we used was just three inches wider than the car and to get on to it we had to go down a 45-degree incline in-cline and stop the moment the front wheels reached the side of the boat. If we had failed to- do that our car would have gone into the river. In some sections the Government exacts a road toll. In other sections sec-tions we were asked to show a pass. We had a book mark that bore the royal arms. This was quite satis factory. In some places this pass '5: enabled us to escape the payment f 1 of the tax. kW t- The foreigner must carry his own J ' food and he must have a competent :S guide. In most of the cities ade- quate and satisfactory hotel accommodations accom-modations will be found. d '"aijr? The Gwalior to Agra road is one SHi- of the finest in the world, with a Am$& wide and excellent surface. r-" India is not exactly a motorist's paradise but it offers some rare ad- ventures for the courageous car jtX owner who likes to see what Is be- yond the horizon. -VjM a& The car we used was a new Hal- Puifi?1 well sports model and averaged 28.7 "ftp d miles to the gallon of petrol or gaso- - line, as you say in America, during s the entire 1,682 miles. ''Z i y'-f.v-1 pointer dog from one side of the ' ImHfe 1 road to the other. Just when you lt i Lj Vi think you have an opportunity ;to i fVi get by, a bullock will swing out to ! ? '' J one side or the other. Hand signals j( 1 ' r mean nothing to them. You just 'M "kV ' ' have to trail along until you find ) a PCe to pass, generally by en- FUT' 'rc'y leaving the road. i St n8i Parades on Sundays on American 1 se the housa highways! A pleasure corr; ived 1 'it every mod""" with trailing a camrl caravan! And 1 Aa tn liL'htPD ' - in India you constantly encounter camels. Camel caravans are so organized or-ganized that half of the camels keep to one side of the road and half to the other. When the caravan leader finds a motor car behind him hji? takes the attitude that getMng'g-is getMng'g-is entirely up to the motorist. ? v; motorist must not stampede camels, so he has to wait fn e.ri i r , and in chv.: rrmettmcs for an h guj evc Elephants know nothinacting pul |