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Nov. 27, 2009 One of the worst streets in the world for pedestrians is Saraswati Road between Padam Singh Road and Guru Nanak Road in Karol Bagh, a district of New Delhi, India. I lived in nearby Channa Market for almost 5 months, and Channa Market itself is congested and chaotic by American standards, but I got used to it I suppose. However, Saraswati Road was an entirely different matter. The street is lined with a multitude of ramshackle buildings with store fronts. There are many travel agents, vegetable markets, bakeries, chemists (drugstores), photo developers, restaurants, fabric shops, sari stores, cook shops and whatnot. For the most part, the shops, though tiny, are clean and orderly inside, but outside, squalor and confusion reign supreme. On Padam Singh, there’s a McDonald’s, and I went there three or four times during my stay in Delhi. I probably would have gone more often, but the treacherous traffic on Saraswati Road kept me away. There are a couple of cyber cafes down near Padam Singh, and when my regular place was closed for reasons known or unknown, I would walk down Saraswati Road to one of the others, much as I hated to. The street was barely 25 feet wide, hardly wide enough for parking on both sides, as well as two-way traffic, anywhere except in India. Not only were there cars parked on both sides, bumper to bumper for over half a mile, there were dozens of cars double- and triple-parked, with auto rickshaws zigging and zagging around everywhere. Usually there were trucks and buses as well, and sometimes animal-drawn carts. Pedicabs and bicycles literally teemed. Men rolled pushcarts of bananas and pineapples right through the traffic, and there were hod-carriers with baskets of stone on their heads darting barefoot in and out of traffic. You wouldn’t dare walk behind a parked car, as the driver might back up suddenly at any minute, and even when you are walking down the street facing traffic, some driver might suddenly swerve towards you, dodging a car coming the other way that you can’t even see. There are three-foot sidewalks on either side of the street, but they are broken beyond recognition. In several places where construction is going on, piles of sand, gravel, bricks and reinforcing rods are piled all over the sidewalk and halfway across the street. Even where there is a fifty-foot stretch of decent sidewalk, some idiot is sitting on a rocking chair with his legs crossed, blocking the sidewalk, or some hapless vendor has a pile of coconuts in the way. Of course, puddles of mud and other grime and filth stagnate everywhere. Most of the businesses are three or four feet above the ground, and access is provided with removable staircases that stick across the sidewalk. At night they put the stairs inside the shop and let down the rolling garage doors. So the stairs are wobbly and bouncy, and have no handrail. There is always somebody or something coming at you from every direction. If you turn, somebody or something else is coming—another pedestrian, a bicycle, an auto rickshaw, car, truck, bus, cow, donkey, pushcart. If there’s a car parked that you can’t get around, there’ll be a van double-parked beside it. If you try to slip along beside the van, flattening yourself against it, when you’re halfway, there’ll be a motorcycle coming in the opposite direction, on the wrong side of the street. There were half a dozen beggar ladies on the street too. A couple of times I slipped them 20 or 30 rupees. After that, they all wanted a handout every time I came. If you say no, they cling to you like leeches, following you along for several blocks and importuning you tirelessly. Even if you put the palm of your hand right in their face or on top of their head, they are not daunted, but keep coming and coming. It’s very distracting, especially when it is so important to watch traffic. If you trip and fall, that day may be your last. If you hit the pavement, there’ll be a car or an auto rickshaw on top of you in a minute. Eventually, I stopped going even to the alternative cyber cafes. I just wasn’t ready for Saraswati Road. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Visit my website here. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! 
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