There and back again, an Indian’s tale, III

The University of Hyderabad is a world outside of this one. It was quite, beautiful, and clean. And Dr. Kumar was just great. I first met one of his PhD students, Roja, who talked with me for a good twenty minutes about research, family, the States, Hyderabad, and everything else. She was great. Then Dileep Kumar came in and we had a number of good laughs. He’s set up to have one of his students accompany me on my research to add a bit of translation help when needed, but mostly just a local face to give credibility to the foreigner asking questions. It should be great.

To keep with the transportation theme, though, you should know that I had my first scooter and motorcycle rides at the university today too. My thesis advisor does research on how motorcycles are transforming the developing world, and anyone who’s been here can say that’s true. Every square inch of open space between the bustling buses and rickshaws are filled with motorcycles. Some carry one or two, while others carry three, four, five, or six people, or maybe just one person and their one-year-old buffalo, or about 500 pounds of some fresh produce off to the market. This photo is just from google, but we'll have to put some up some of our own if we can whip out our cameras in time. This is no strange sight anymore...

So motorcycles here are minivans, trucks, and sedans, all in one. What’s most amazing is how they weave in and out of everything, and how the people hardly look phased at all sitting on the back four inches of the seat that’s left to them. Most don’t even hold on, and women usually sit side saddle on the back. I’m always amazed. You can see how motorcycles just fill the gaps in this photo:

Well, on the way to lunch the professor gave me a ride on the back of his scooter. I was a little timid, but luckily it was all in the U of Hyd campus and so nothing too scary. Good thing too, because this was the prep I needed to be ready for my ride back to the train station when our meetings were over. I said I’d catch another rick back to the station, but good professor Kumar would have nothing with the idea. He had a student drive me on his motorcycle. That was great. I really enjoyed it, but still question how a family of four (or seven) make it work.