Go-Slow

  
go-slow

n

(Business / Industrial Relations & HR Terms) Brit

a.  a deliberate slackening of the rate of production by organized labour as a tactic in industrial conflict

b.  (as modifier) go-slow tactics US and Canadian equivalent slowdown

Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com 

When the Brits left, they probably left this word back in Nigeria. It has now mutated into a term that causes the maximum headaches on the roads of Lagos and also into a excuse which cannot be met with a repartee'.

Its used as a noun to perfectly describe what happened, is happening or will happen on the roads of Lagos.

My best(worst) experience of this was spending 7 hours in the car on my way back from an agency meeting. I left at about 3.30 pm and hoped to be home by 5- 5.30 pm, cause it had taken nearly 2 hours in the morning traffic, but I eventually reached home at 10.30 pm.

There have been numerous instances when a 15min drive 

The reasons are many from accidents to high density population to slow moving cargo trucks to just 3 bridges connecting the island to mainland.

In adversity comes opportunity. The same go-slow which frustrates people to no end and sends schedules haywire also helps a set of people earn their livelihood. the long traffic snarls have given rise to a new channel of selling products called the go-slow market. When you are trying to get on to the highway out of Lagos at 10-11 am in the morning and stuck in the traffic and heat, there is an easy solution to the heat in the form of chilled soft drinks and bottled water served to you right at your car window. Most of the people on the road in the picture below are hawkers.

 I have seen products sold across a lot of categories and also the choice of categories chosen as per the location. Highways mostly have food and drinks including peanuts, soft drinks , water sachets and bottles, snack packets etc. On normal city roads you can find mobiles, mobile accessories ,car accessories. On the island I know a couple of spots  that sell books, in fact I bought 'There was a Country' from a go slow hawker.

The working conditions are not great, you have to bear the heat, noise and pollution. Sometimes the hawkers have to run behind the vehicles to complete the transaction and get their money. All this to survive for the day.  

Landing in Lagos

I landed in Lagos at about 6 pm. As the plane approached the airport it passed by innumerable muddy lanes flanked by infinite brown rooftops. I couldn't make out any tall buildings. It seemed like we were going past a sea of corrugated sheets. As the plane landed a thought crossed my mind, where have I come?   The image of the never ending brown sea underneath is something that has always caught my attention during takeoffs and landings. As I got out of the plane, the first thing that caught my eye was the dark blue carpet. I had never seen such a thick carpet at any airport and I would get to know later that it was from one of the sister companies of the group.  I took my first steps on Naijaland, I was a bit nervous. I had the address of the Office but the plan was to reach Lagos at mid-noon. I could only hope that someone had come to the Airport to pick me up.

I reached the immigration desk in the midst of the crowd from the plane.  It was taking a lot of time to clear the passengers through the formalities. And then suddenly someone was calling out for “Mr. Battu Venkata” I have never been called that so I probably recognized the call on the 3^rd or 4^th attempt. I made my way ahead and met Mr. Sheyi who was still calling out my name.  He took me towards the desk and the formalities were quickly completed.  Then Mr.Sheyi asked me to pick my bags and meet him at the exit.

Now I had two big burly bags and one had to pay to use trolled. I was flummoxed, not just by that fact but because I had Indian Rupees and I couldn't see a Foreign Exchange booth. Luckily there was an Indian lady waiting for the baggage beside me and I decided that she would be person to give me the solution. She quickly flushed out a Naira 200 note for me to use and waved away the 50 rupee note that I had quickly calculated to be just compensation.

And so I got out of the airport intact and got into the car that had been borrowed to pick me up. In the car, I got my phone and the IOU money in Naira for expenses. I wanted to see the city, but it was already dark and I was tired. We had to go to the office to pick up the person who had lent the car. Same scenario at the office, it was dark and everyone had left. I got dropped off at the place where we would spend a couple of days before shifting to our apartment. What struck me as odd as I entered the compound were the high walls with barbed wire and the strong gate at the entrance. I could finally meet my batch mates here and after exchanging notes spent the night in the house of the nice couple upstairs. This area was Pelewura near Apapa Port, Lagos. I slept that night in a bit of excitement. I was finally in Nigeria and had no clue what the future would hold.

D-Day

I was all set, packed up for the journey 'Saath Samundar Paar' with heavy luggage which would have been heavier if I had not convinced my Mom that there would be edible things available in Nigeria.

There were 2 other batch mates going along with me as we had planned to take the flight from Mumbai together. I had planned to take the last flight of the day from Bangalore to Mumbai, so I would have 4 hours to transfer to the international airport to join them and then go through the airport formalities.

 We(family)  left a good 2.5 hrs before the flight assuming that I would reach the airport an hour before flight time. We had traveled for just about 20 minutes when it started pouring, first a slight drizzle that continued to grow and became a waterfall on the windscreen. Along with rain in Bangalore, the traffic comes free. So, anxiously hoping for light traffic ahead we hit the airport road finally with just about an hour left. Long story short , I stepped at the gate with 15 minutes left for the last flight from Bangalore to take off.

I was not allowed  enter the airport because the plane was already taxing and even though there were 4 more passengers who joined me later asking the flight to be stopped for 10 more minutes and calls made by the airline representative requesting permission to hold the flight for some more time, nothing worked.

And so I found myself someone who had not missed a bus or a train in my life, missing a flight. And missing this flight meant that I wouldn't make it to Mumbai in time for the international flight. A whole lot of emotions ran through my head at this point, anger that I  had some how brought this situation into play, disappointment with the airline which left its passengers to hang out in the rain. I even imagined that this was a sign of fore-boding but after shaking away all these thoughts I still had to catch the flight from Mumbai in 6 hrs.

The communication board told me that the next flight to Mumbai would be an hour after the international flight had left. Out came my laptop and the dongle that I for some reason had carried to the airport.
I had tried various permutations and combinations of getting to Lagos and since it was not possible to get in time to Mumbai started searching for options to get to Dubai so that I could join my friends there. And there it was the early morning flight to Dubai from Bangalore. Now the problem was that the tickets had been booked by an agent and it was now midnight.  The airport offices are closed too and there was no counter for the airlines at the airport.

The connection to the internet helped in getting the customer helpline and after a long verification process when it was just about to take another 5-10 minutes to finish the ordeal , my phone decided it had enough of overtime and promptly shut itself down. I borrowed a phone from my dad and began the whole process again and finally after waiting for 45 mins for the consumer helpline to wake up people in Mumbai and make the necessary changes, my flight ticket was transferred to Bangalore. I had already informed my friends that I would be boarding my flight from Bangalore instead of coming to Mumbai.  It was 2:30 am and I bid goodbye to my family for the 2nd time in 4 hours and then turned towards the gate to be denied entry for the 2nd time as the ticket in my hand was for the Mumbai flight and the passenger records for Dubai had not been updated with my name.

Another call to the helpline and I was asked to contact the Air-India cabin to help me in getting me into the airport. Finally I could breathe a sigh of relief when I was seated in the plane. When the plane took off I hoped to reach in time for the morning flight to Dubai as my 2nd flight had also been changed to afternoon, cause the arrival time of the Bangalore flight wouldn't allow me to catch the morning flight. I din't sleep much having spent most of the flight with the in flight entertainment system. As soon as we landed I found the gate for the Lagos flight and walked as fast as I could to reach there and reached the gate with 20 mins left for the flight. I asked if there were empty seats on this flight and was told yes. Next I asked if I could be transferred to the current flight. The officer was ready but after consulting the supervisor said that they could have sent the baggage later and allowed me board the flight but since the destination was Lagos they would take any chance with the baggage and so I had to go along with it. And thus began a 7 hour boring wait for my flight.
And finally after more than 24 hours of leaving from my home I landed in Lagos.
  

Bon Voyage!!!

After being born, growing up and doing all sorts of things that an average person of 26 years is expected to do and more in just one country of the world –India. I left its shores for the first time (barring the Euro-Trip the month before) to a country which seems analogous to India in Africa, the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Whatever I had heard of it before was from people who were working in the Oil Industry. As the story goes, I went with this guy on the trip to Hampi in 2008 who had gone to Nigeria for a week. He heard gun shots at the time of getting down on the tarmac at the airport and had a 14 year old kid with an AK-47 as his body guard al through his stay and everywhere he went. The next time I came across Nigeria was during the SBM course where our group had to make an hour long creative presentation on the UN Compact.
While researching on the subject I came across the organization in the Delta region of Nigeria which had fought against an oil company for the damage it had done to its environment and its people. Their leader was a poet whose songs carried out the message in a soulful way, he was murdered later on. I was impressed with the guy and made the story a part of the presentation , maybe I wasn’t good at getting it out or the class wasn’t interested by that stage of the presentation, the message did not get across but I was now aware of something else connected to Nigeria.
Trying to figure out more about this country came across You Tube videos that should Lagos to be crowded with lots of traffic problems. Seems just like Mumbai if you ask me. Also came across a blog from a tourist who said that if you do not have a car then its impossible to get anywhere on time in Lagos. The company has assured transportation so hopefully no problems there.
Also read and heard about the crime in Lagos. But do not really want to get details. Just want to try out the country for a couple of years. I know it will be difficult to settle down in a new place and new environment, have done that a few times before but then it was still some place in India. This will surely be a tougher challenge , hopefully will get through it and come out better in terms of experience and as a person.
I do feel excited about going to a new country in a new continent and even more so when I think that I have got an opportunity to put whatever have learnt in the past couple of years to practice. Even on the personal front its good as I need some breathing space, far from the madding crowd. So all in all fingers crossed and pretty excited was the state before the D-day arrived. My Mis-Adventures on the D-day in the next post:)