Order in chaos

I did a bit of dabbling in chaos theory when I was doing my thesis, which dealt with complexity. Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a small town in India (with a population of 2.2 million, it is considered a small town in India). We all have our own ideas about how India is like. What struck me was the traffic conditions.

With 2.2 million people, and cars and trucks and bicycles and all other sorts of vehicles, the roads of the small town that I visited is a bustling mess of pedestrians, cyclists and drivers. People cross the roads as and where they like, I have seen only one set of traffic lights during my entire stay, cars honk away like nobody's business and overtake on the opposite lanes. Yet traffic did not come to a standstill, nor did I witness any traffic accidents (although being driven around was quite a hair-raising experience).

Somehow, even though everyone was going about his or her own business, trying to get to their own destinations, they observe hidden, unwritten, unspoken rules. Sometimes, drivers would press on; sometimes, they would give way. Somehow, these unspoken rules actually brought order into the chaotic scene that makes up the roads of an Indian town.