💬 Nobody here uses indicators and I've given up counting

Moved back from Toronto 8 months ago. Nothing prepared me for the roads here, and I mean nothing. Nobody uses an indicator. A car ahead of me will drift 2 lanes right with the stalk untouched. In Toronto you'd get a horn and a stare for that. Here the guy behind just brakes and adapts. I've started to think I'm the only one who even knows where the stalk is. Last Tuesday near the Jubilee Hills check post, a white Swift cut in front of me from the left. No signal, no look. I hit the brakes so hard my laptop bag slid off the back seat. I pulled up next to him at the red light and made the little flicking motion with my finger. He looked at me like I was asking for his phone number. Then the light went green and he was gone. My cousin says it's because people here treat the road as one big negotiation. You don't announce, you just nudge. Fine, but a nudge works when the other person is watching. Half of them are on a call. I saw a bus driver this week steer with his elbow while texting. He still didn't signal. So now I leave a big gap in front of everything. It adds 10 minutes to my drive. I know it sounds small. I get that. But it costs nothing, it's one flick of the wrist. The strange part is I've started doing it on empty roads at 1 am. Habit, I guess. Yesterday I signalled for a turn with no car within 200 metres. Felt a bit smug about it. Anyway. If you drive on the Outer Ring Road at rush hour, say a prayer for me.

After 8 months you are already thinking like a local, since the guy behind just braking and adapting is basically traffic law now. My cousin came back from Sydney and put a small sticker on her dashboard that says I use my indicator. It does nothing, but it keeps her calm. The white Swift cutting in near Jubilee Hills would have tested me too.

The bus driver steering with his elbow is a daily sight on my route. I drive an auto on weekends. The worst are two wheelers that signal left and then turn right without a second thought. My trick is watching the front wheel of the vehicle instead of the lights, it turns a second early. Toronto sounds nice, but I'd miss the chaos after a month. Maybe not the near misses.