Tommy boy’s adventures: Truckin'

First let me start off with a correction from a previous post. The lady in Canada did hold true to her word because people have received the postcards. So all is well with that. I am sorry that I spoke ill will of them, but it is a little odd that it took so long to get the postcards to the states. I now have faith in our northern neighbor and I will trust them to look after my house the next time I go out of town. In other news.
So yesterday we traveled to Durgapur. We had some very good meetings there and it was a good trip. We traveled by car which was nice and the road was a toll road so it was very nice to drive one. The one issue is that there are a lot of trucks and that means that everyone uses their horn. A LOT. It is unreal. We thought it would be close to about 4 times every kilometer. It is just insane. Also they love to lay on the horn and really get into it. You think this would make the person in front of you upset. Not in the slightest. They just look ahead and do not say a thing. It is quite odd. I wanted to throw an egg at the cars that did not understand that the horn was for them but I was talked out of it. It sure would have been fun though.

As for the trucks, they are way cool. All of the trucks are built from the ground up. When they are ordered, they are driven down the road with just a chair and a steering wheel. It is a site to see. I am sorry I have no pictures of this but just picture a 10’ high truck that went under an eight foot bridge. That is what it looks like. Once the owner gets the truck, then he outfits it himself. Let me tell you they spare now expense. They go all out. Paint, inside, outside, things that hang from the roof, and the truck bed is painted. The back of the mud flaps always say Good Luck (which is what you need to get through india quickly) and the back bumper says “obey traffic rules.” Which no one does but it is good to say anyway. It is really too bad that people in America do not do this because it would be awesome. So that is the story with the trucks, pretty cool site to see when you are driving.

One of our meetings yesterday was at a Steel plant. The security that is there is much different than the security in America. The security guards have automatic weapons there. Pretty intense. The security is just as lax, but the weapons are cool. Because security is high you never drive a car in, so you always walk through the gate and then get picked up by the guy who you are meeting with. Well yesterday it was a little different. Every car we have gotten into here in India, never has the radio on. I guess they think Americans do not like music. The thing is that everyone has a nice radio. To be honest I do not think the cars are sold with radios because all of them are nice aftermarket radios. Sorry for the tangent back to the story. So we get in the car and I am sitting in the front (on the left side, looking for the steering wheel) and this guy has the radio on. I am pumped. Because I am in a foreign country, I have keep my jokes and things to a minimum. Not today. We get in his car and after hearing about 15 seconds of the song, I just grab the volume and crank it. Our guy is stoked. He is so happy that we like the music. He asks if I know the song, I do not. The rest of the 5 minute ride was with the radio loud and everyone having a good time. Well we see him later that night, and he was so excited that he made me a copy of the cd in the car and gave it to me. I told him that I would send him some discs as well. Music crossing boarders. Life is good.

So our days are winding down here both in India and out trip. I am really glad that I got to see India during the development. They are working on a lot of things and who knows when it is going to get done but they are committed to catching up with the rest of the world. I look forward to come back. Hopefully I will get to see a cricket match the next time. All in all it was a good trip and I think everyone had fun.