David Waumsley Travels

Not the usual travel post, but we could not resist including our own photos of one of the national news events during our stay in India. Seemingly, most of the press were supporting the helmet awareness rally organised by the Mumbai police and led by a team of senior state ministers on motorbikes.

There’s no doubting that wearing helmets saves lives and that (although illegal) a good proportion of motorcylist don’t. The main dissincentivite for both riders and their passengers (aside from cost and religious headwear) is the discomfort of wearing a helmet in the Indian heat. Fortunately, those involved in this demonstration at Nariman Point were sensible enough to block off the road, wait till the sun was setting and to ride only 10 mins next to the cool breeze of the Arabian sea.

The best part of the event for us was the sight of two policemen riding pillion (5 minutes behind the main procession) without their helmets. I’m guessing with all of Mumbai’s Senior Police ahead of them these two escaped a fine this time! Apologies, we were laughing too hard to get to the camera in time.