Why people honk in India

My first few weeks in India were full of new things. New sights. New smells. New sounds. Particularly taxing was the sounds emanating from motor vehicles (everyone from truck drivers to motorbikes to auto-rickshaw drivers).

Honking. Everyone does it.

I sought to understand why people do it so much. Now, three months into living here, I came up with the following list of hypotheses as to why the Indian (and non-Indian alike!) has to be assaulted with the daily sound of a vehicle-horn. Please note the following is based on my own observations. Any resemblance to any traffic laws that may or may not exist is purely coincidental. ;-)

• One honks to signal that they are about turn left or right
• One honks as they are approaching an intersection to warn incoming traffic of their presence on said-junction
• One honks at the behest of signs such as this one above
• One honks to alert other drivers of intent to overtake
• One honks as they perform above-mentioned act of over-taking
• One honks on a curvy mountainous road to alert on-coming traffic
• One honks to shoo livestock off the road
• One honks to shoo pedestrians off the road (mind you, pedestrians have an equal right on the roads. As the sidewalks are usually filled with dog poop, humans take it upon themselves to simply walk on the roads, hence yet another reason to honk).
• And finally, one honks in place of the classic road-rage “I’m about to flick you off” gesture.

In other words, honking has taken precedence over all traffic rules. What I fail to understand is how on earth the average driver is meant to distinguish between honks. As in – if I were driving, how am I to decipher whether the dude/dudette behind me is honking because she’s annoyed at my driving or honking at the cow on the road...or honking to let me know that s/he is about overtake me?!

Let’s just say – I’m thankful that I don’t have to get behind the wheel and drive here!! I’m more than happy simply sending up prayers asking that the rickshaw driver won’t get me killed! ;)