Not infrequently, while you are driving or walking or just idling, watching the goings-on in the vicinity, you observe some uncouth, uncivilized and senseless behaviour and wonder `Why are we like this and why do we do this?? Don't we realise that what we are doing is causing problems to the others'?? Your mind automatically clicks back to somewhat similar situations you have encountered in another country and wonder why there is this manic desire in most Indians to knowingly and willingly abuse our public spaces, inconveniencing people around us and themselves, more often than not. We are not talking about the age-old issues of spitting, throwing waste or urinating in public spaces but many other ways of offending sensibilities.
There should be a strictly enforced rule that small restaurants, tee/coffee shops and the like should not operate out of any street-corner site. How often do we see cycles, auto-rickshaws, motor-cycles and even cars parked haphazardly on narrow roads which the joint straddles? They occupy 70% of the space meant for movement of people and vehicles, forming some unbreakable `vyuha', just so that the owners/drivers of these vehicles enjoy their cuppa, a smoke and leisurely chit-chat? All this, while just a few yards from them, there is mayhem and people are milling and jostling to squeeze past the parked vehicles. When tempers flare and fights break out on the road among road-users, these worthies snigger and stare insolently at the scene, relishing the commotion they have caused. If you expected some semblance of regret or apology, forget it. Obviously you cannot put this down to thoughtless behaviour of the juvenile variety. There is this deliberate desire to cause offence and pain and that is what is galling.
Take the case of getting into elevators, buses etc. While 15 people are waiting patiently for the elevator/bus to empty out, the first few people who rush in from the sides are the few mad men who have just arrived on the scene. Not only would they push through, but also park themselves at the entrance of the elevator/bus, blocking the way for the rest. Why? They have to get out earlier than the others! This could be in/near a hospital, where there are the sick and the elderly waiting to use the lifts/buses, but these offenders dont care. For some reason, a well-intentioned queue, which had formed before the bus arrived, dissipates into a melee immediately on its arrival and a free-for-all follows, in which the ladies and the infirm are absolutely helpless!
What about this? Every day, when we drive from home in the morning, we are treated to the sight of two small trucks involved in a messy transfer of stuff to a larger truck, right on the road. What kind of commercial transaction is being done? The smaller trucks are transferring all the garbage collected from about 2000 houses in the locality to the bigger truck. It is bad enough that people without even the protection of gloves go through the garbage, sifting for useful nuggets; but this is done in full public view, with the accompanying stench violating your nostrils. You get a full demonstration of this activity as you wait to overtake the parked trucks to proceed on your way. It should not be difficult to move the offending trucks to a remoter location where all the sorting is done, but do you think they care?? Their thought process seems to be that `if we have to dig into this mess for a living, you prudes should not be too sensitive about having a glimpse'!!
In case you thought this `offensive' tendency is individual, think again! Institutions dont lag far behind. Corporation's workers are laying some pipes or repairing something on the road. Familiar scene, happens daily. Knowing fully well that the narrow road has to have at least one way traffic flowing without hindrance and they have to manage this well, what do they actually do?? With a supervising engineer around, the mud, debris, pipes to be laid are all stacked on the road in such a way that the road is just not usable in any sense. And to add to this misery, they just refuse to regulate the traffic, with the result, on about 40% of the normal road, two way traffic tries to edge past everything and you know what happens! Men and women in a continuum of snarling matches; frayed tempers and abusive language; some fisticuffs and general despair - while some radio is providing musical entertainment - `abhi na jaao chodkar' is playing, ironically - to the 5-6 people digging deeper, with the sole intent of causing incremental grief.
I am sure you have experienced this while driving or riding in a car. You are at a signal-less, unpoliced busy intersection, trying to turn right. Traffic is coming from your right and you have to get past that stream to turn right. You have waited at the intersection for more than 5 minutes, hoping for a gap in the traffic. You nudge the car forward slowly, hoping to break through eventually, because the traffic from the right is just not stopping. (I used to ask my driver why he has to slowly insert the car into the oncoming traffic and risk the possibility of being hit and his wisdom was simple - you cannot wait for the waves to abate if you want to have a dip in the sea!). You have come most of the way and just a bit is left before you can heave a sigh of relief. You look to the right and see three cars coming about 100 meters away, switching on their headlights, firmly indicating their intent not to let you clear the next 10 feet, so that you can do your turn. Those cars will go further right, to move around you, almost hitting a couple of vehicles coming from the left, but they will not let you pass. If the traffic from right stops for one mintue, you and the others waiting with you could turn and be done; but no, that would be far too simple and equitable, you see. What causes this?? Ego or something else? And all the people indulging in this thuggery are not uneducated drivers!!
Similarly, if it is a junction where four roads are converging and the traffic police, in their infinite wisdom, have switched off the lights (that is another mystery I have not cracked yet - why, for heaven's sake??), you can bet your bottom rupee that within 15 minutes there will be a situation where cars, buses, two-wheelers and other assorted vehicles have all come to a halt, with no space to manoeuvre. The vehicles are at all kinds of weird angles, making it impossible to guess which one was heading in which direction. It will take a policeman some 45 minutes to untangle this mess, while all those who created the mess in the first place generate more chaos by blaring their horns and yelling belligerently. Why did they get into this situation? Because they did not have the patience and good sense to wait 10 seconds and let somebody else pass and move in an orderly manner. They would rather waste the next hour, struggling to get out of the ensuing unholy mess!!
Will we ever change?? Or are we destined to be like this only??
There should be a strictly enforced rule that small restaurants, tee/coffee shops and the like should not operate out of any street-corner site. How often do we see cycles, auto-rickshaws, motor-cycles and even cars parked haphazardly on narrow roads which the joint straddles? They occupy 70% of the space meant for movement of people and vehicles, forming some unbreakable `vyuha', just so that the owners/drivers of these vehicles enjoy their cuppa, a smoke and leisurely chit-chat? All this, while just a few yards from them, there is mayhem and people are milling and jostling to squeeze past the parked vehicles. When tempers flare and fights break out on the road among road-users, these worthies snigger and stare insolently at the scene, relishing the commotion they have caused. If you expected some semblance of regret or apology, forget it. Obviously you cannot put this down to thoughtless behaviour of the juvenile variety. There is this deliberate desire to cause offence and pain and that is what is galling.
Take the case of getting into elevators, buses etc. While 15 people are waiting patiently for the elevator/bus to empty out, the first few people who rush in from the sides are the few mad men who have just arrived on the scene. Not only would they push through, but also park themselves at the entrance of the elevator/bus, blocking the way for the rest. Why? They have to get out earlier than the others! This could be in/near a hospital, where there are the sick and the elderly waiting to use the lifts/buses, but these offenders dont care. For some reason, a well-intentioned queue, which had formed before the bus arrived, dissipates into a melee immediately on its arrival and a free-for-all follows, in which the ladies and the infirm are absolutely helpless!
What about this? Every day, when we drive from home in the morning, we are treated to the sight of two small trucks involved in a messy transfer of stuff to a larger truck, right on the road. What kind of commercial transaction is being done? The smaller trucks are transferring all the garbage collected from about 2000 houses in the locality to the bigger truck. It is bad enough that people without even the protection of gloves go through the garbage, sifting for useful nuggets; but this is done in full public view, with the accompanying stench violating your nostrils. You get a full demonstration of this activity as you wait to overtake the parked trucks to proceed on your way. It should not be difficult to move the offending trucks to a remoter location where all the sorting is done, but do you think they care?? Their thought process seems to be that `if we have to dig into this mess for a living, you prudes should not be too sensitive about having a glimpse'!!
In case you thought this `offensive' tendency is individual, think again! Institutions dont lag far behind. Corporation's workers are laying some pipes or repairing something on the road. Familiar scene, happens daily. Knowing fully well that the narrow road has to have at least one way traffic flowing without hindrance and they have to manage this well, what do they actually do?? With a supervising engineer around, the mud, debris, pipes to be laid are all stacked on the road in such a way that the road is just not usable in any sense. And to add to this misery, they just refuse to regulate the traffic, with the result, on about 40% of the normal road, two way traffic tries to edge past everything and you know what happens! Men and women in a continuum of snarling matches; frayed tempers and abusive language; some fisticuffs and general despair - while some radio is providing musical entertainment - `abhi na jaao chodkar' is playing, ironically - to the 5-6 people digging deeper, with the sole intent of causing incremental grief.
I am sure you have experienced this while driving or riding in a car. You are at a signal-less, unpoliced busy intersection, trying to turn right. Traffic is coming from your right and you have to get past that stream to turn right. You have waited at the intersection for more than 5 minutes, hoping for a gap in the traffic. You nudge the car forward slowly, hoping to break through eventually, because the traffic from the right is just not stopping. (I used to ask my driver why he has to slowly insert the car into the oncoming traffic and risk the possibility of being hit and his wisdom was simple - you cannot wait for the waves to abate if you want to have a dip in the sea!). You have come most of the way and just a bit is left before you can heave a sigh of relief. You look to the right and see three cars coming about 100 meters away, switching on their headlights, firmly indicating their intent not to let you clear the next 10 feet, so that you can do your turn. Those cars will go further right, to move around you, almost hitting a couple of vehicles coming from the left, but they will not let you pass. If the traffic from right stops for one mintue, you and the others waiting with you could turn and be done; but no, that would be far too simple and equitable, you see. What causes this?? Ego or something else? And all the people indulging in this thuggery are not uneducated drivers!!
Similarly, if it is a junction where four roads are converging and the traffic police, in their infinite wisdom, have switched off the lights (that is another mystery I have not cracked yet - why, for heaven's sake??), you can bet your bottom rupee that within 15 minutes there will be a situation where cars, buses, two-wheelers and other assorted vehicles have all come to a halt, with no space to manoeuvre. The vehicles are at all kinds of weird angles, making it impossible to guess which one was heading in which direction. It will take a policeman some 45 minutes to untangle this mess, while all those who created the mess in the first place generate more chaos by blaring their horns and yelling belligerently. Why did they get into this situation? Because they did not have the patience and good sense to wait 10 seconds and let somebody else pass and move in an orderly manner. They would rather waste the next hour, struggling to get out of the ensuing unholy mess!!
Will we ever change?? Or are we destined to be like this only??
