Don't buy a Ferrari in India....

because you will very rarely be able to go above 30 kmph (which is about 18.75 mph, less than what school zones in the US require you to drive when the yellow lights are flashing). In fact, the only vehicle you should buy in India is a motorcycle.Let me elaborate.

After returning to Delhi from Leh, I began my internship with BBC World Service Trust, the part of BBC which focuses on trying to solve various problems by creating radio programs, TV shows, mobile ringtones etc using the information they have gathered from interviews. I am currently analyzing transcripts of interviews taken by Afghan people relating to illegal immigration in Afghanistan. It's quite interesting, as reading the transcripts almost transports you to the room in which the interview is taking place, so you can see the expressions of the participants when they describe the fact that they know many people who have died on their trip abroad and hear their voices when they describe the lack of opportunities available in Afghanistan. But I digress.

Every morning, at around 8 o'clock, my aunt, uncle, and I all leave for work. They stay in Dwarka, which is like a sub-city inside Delhi. The ride in should not take more than 30 minutes, but there are days when the ride takes an hour and a half. Like today. Part of the reason it took so long was the fact that it was raining. There aren't really sewer systems in India (or at least, none that I've seen) so when it rains, water just collects in various places.

However, the other reason was the traffic. We would move at 30 kmph for a solid minute, then hit another traffic jam. There were cars everywhere. People in India also don't drive in straight lines or in lanes. So on roads in which there are 3 lanes clearly demarcated, there will be four or five "lanes". And because Indians don't drive in straight lines, as soon as one car moves, another one from a different lane that you didn't even know existed until two seconds ago will take its spot. Not to mention that there are also some people who will drive on the wrong side of the divider or will be in the left most lane and then try and take a right turn.

But fixing the problem requires a lot of effort, that the government is unwilling to expend (at the moment) especially as the Commonwealth Games are coming up (all the nations that were once ruled by Britain compete in this sporting event, minus the US, so the government is currently involved in building stadiums and other Games's related infrastructure). And this problem is multifaceted. The most pressing issue is the population. India's population is growing, especially in the rural areas, where mothers continue to have huge families. Because the family's land has been divided over many generations, many of the sons are forced to move to cities just so that they can eat. According to my aunt's helper, during the last week, 20 people from her village came to New Delhi. Imagine the amount of people migrating monthly into the city. And frankly, the city's infrastructure isn't built to handle the influx of people coming in. It can barely handle the population already here, it can't take much more. The problem with population is that there really is no effective way to deal with it. China's one child policy has caused many problems, including an aging population and negative population growth. Adding to that is the fact that in some rural areas, this policy is relaxed, allowing parents to have more than one child. China was able to maintain this policy due to its strong government, but India has no where near as strong of a government as China has.

Linked with the problem of population also comes the fact that there are just too many cars on the road. There is a metro system that is being expanded, as well as an extensive bus system, but many people are unwilling to use them because they often get extremely crowded. On some of the buses, there are people hanging out of the buses while the buses are moving, simply because there isn't enough room in the bus. To keep their comfort, many people choose to drive cars. The cheapest car in India, the Tato Nano, was unveiled with a price tag of 100,000 rupees, much cheaper than many other cars, fueling the exponential increase in cars on the road. I'm not saying that people should completely stop buying cars. That would be detrimental to the economy. People should be able to have cars, but with restrictions. Today, over half of the cars that I saw had only one person in it. Carpooling should be enforced, with heavy, heavy fines on those who don't comply. Or, there should be a policy similar to the policy in Singapore, in which people who wish to drive their cars during the week have to pay a certain amount and during the weekend have to pay a different fine. However, the amount that needs to be paid should be so high that most people resort to carpooling and splitting the cost required to drive during the week. Or, public transportation needs to be increased. However, this all takes a strong, transparent government, which sadly, is exactly what India does not have.

As I am currently taking a summer course in AP US History, I can see that there are several parallels between  Indian and American history regarding this huge population boom, the migration to the cities, and the dramatic increase in cars. However, America was able to eventually solve the problems. Why shouldn't India be able to? Many will recognize that India has only been around for 63 years, while the US has been a nation for about 234 years (almost four times the time India has been around). Maybe time is what is needed to solve this problem. However, to play Devil's advocate, India should be able to utilize the advanced technology present today to solve the problem in a much quicker time than it took the US.

The moral of the story: Don't buy a Ferrari in India.