Just Like Whooville. Without the singing

"Oh the noise, noise, noise, noise, noise!"

Let me rant a moment ... There are times here in India when I would like to just pack it all in and leave. Most of those times come while I am on a bus. It is not the bad road conditions; I have dealt with worse. It is not the crowded uncomfortable conditions; again I have dealt with worse. It is not even the dirt and dust. What makes the trips nearly unbearable is the incessant honking by the bus drivers.

In actuality, when driving in traffic, horns really don't do what you want them to do. No one is going to "Get out of the way, stupid," or "Speed up you slug," just because you honk your horn at them. They believe they have just as much right to be idiots on the road as you do. So I don't understand why in some countries, people use their horns so much. And I see absolutely no reason for laying on the horn for more than a second, let alone 30 seconds ( I kid you not, it has happened more than once here in India, and in moving traffic no less.)

I also don't understand why the bus drivers here take the chances they do. Passing on blind curves, with on coming traffic, and stopping at the last possible moment just because they think it will get them somewhere faster. Forgetting for a moment that they have the lives of a bus load of passengers in their hands (which is hard to do considering I am one of those passengers), don't they even care about their own lives? Do they have that much blind faith thinking their daily offerings at the temples and their icons and pictures of gods on the dashboard will actually protect them?

Even if they don't die, I am sure an accident won't do much for their career as a driver.

It is all really nearly incomprehensible to me.