The taxi ride to Chitrakoot

I had decided to take a taxi to Chitrakoot from Allahabad. Given that the last taxi trip ended up taking eleven hours, I entered the car fingers crossed. It was only meant to be a 3 hour trip but in India I have come to know that anything is possible.

However, the trip was wonderful. The sun was shining, the roads were good, mostly, and there was no real traffic. The trip cost about £40, which for 140km is not bad, but I realised I was getting so many forms of entertainment included, that £40 seemed a good deal.

For example, I had my own music system free of charge. If it was not the radio playing nostalgic Hindi songs from films then it was the sound of the car braving the bumps in the road or, more likely, it was the sound of the horns talking to each other, as if arguing amongst themselves.

The ride also acted as a free rollercoaster. Cars swerved past each other driving on the wrong side of the road or through crowds that really should not have been driven through. They clomped over bumps at such a speed that I would often leave my seat, hitting my head on the top of the car. Sometimes the ride made me think that I might actually be safer on a rollercoaster than in the taxi.

And to add to all of this I had my free multi-genre movie system. Sometimes I would watch comedies as cows or goats strolled across the road, blocking cars from every direction. At times, I felt as though I was watching a drama when trying to sort a price out with the driver. Thrillers were in no short supply when at daring speeds along narrow roads my driver decided to overtake the long lorry ahead of us, with oncoming tractors and lorries who did not slow down. It was as if the two were playing a game, trying to see how close the cars could get without touching, or crashing. And sometimes I felt as though I was watching a romance as I looked out of the window, falling in love with what was around me.

Taxi rides in India are many things, but they are never uneventful.