Are Indians Adept at giving directions?
Travelling then (12 years earlier) and now
Around 12 years back we took a really adventurous trip to Kerala driving our way through the state- its rainforests and coasts. We had no GPS and relied on a hand held paper map of the roads. Our map was highly accurate, but our navigator was not (especially without his reading glasses) and we lost directions several times.
Each time we got down and asked for directions we received plenty of indications and hand gestures (we did not know Malayalam -their local language). At times they would oblige by drawing directions on the dusty roadsides. They were certainly a helpful lot but we never arrived at our destination without losing ourselves again. After some instances someone in our group observed that a single Malayalam word would always predominate verbal discussions. It was “nere”. Excited at the find we opened the Malayalam-English dictionary that we carried and there was the meaning. ‘Nere’ meant straight.
Well I know you haven’t a straight face
Another time we were driving through Rajasthan. They are used to folks driving through their roads. At turns we asked for directions, they said ‘seedhe’ which again means straight. Of course we would lose directions again until our son observed that though they said ‘seedhe’ (straight), their hand was pointing in another direction!
So much for directions!
Our trips throughout 2008 and 2009 were completely different. We had equipped ourselves with the “Never Get Lost” GPS device SatGuide. And we truly never got lost.
The members of our group were ecstatic at its performance. I was not. Why?
I missed getting down at those small villages, photographing the locals and sampling truly local cuisine.
However, beginning 2010 I was in for a surprise. We took off to Himachal and we took the longest and winding routes through small villages where we got down and interacted with locals, ate with them and even slept in their houses. We never lost our way even once. I began to marvel at the technology of SatGuide and its accuracy.
This is was great technology does. It allows you to choose. For me the choices that SatGuide gave me were impressive. That a GPS would make directions easy was understood. But by giving mapping minute details it allowed us to plan something unique. That made a lot of difference.
Thank You SatGuide.
Tags: car navigation, GPS, gps maps, gps navigation, navigation, Navigator, Technology
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By Pranav, July 12, 2010 @ 11:01 AM
As for giving directions, I was once in a Taxi traveling from Gurgaon to Delhi. The driver seemed to have his own ideas in interpretting the directions he was beeing given. I would have been lost without GPS.
Also, admin, could I please contact you directly? I have a satGuide related request which the sales force has been unable to fulfill due to the unique nature of the request.
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