Yup, Indians have it their own way... And I, as an Indian, cannot proudly boast about it. Be it any one from a normal uneducated person to highly sophisticated person, very few beg to differ.
I have always had this frustration that even people, when put in to road on any other country, right away follow the rules... refuse to do so in their own mother land... India. Have you seen bikes fizzing past you even if you were standing there for past 15 minutes to reach the other side of the road? Well thats the same person who would have stopped atleast 5 meters infront of a pedestrain crossing in US roads. I have been thinking that it has got to do with rules and the application of it!
Ney.... that is not everything. Its got to do with our damn mentality. Any way, we have not got the great reputation of being on time any where.... then why the hell do you wish to overspeed? What are you trying to do by plugging all the gaps between other vehicles standing by in the traffic?Half of the chaos created can be attributed to the way we organize ourselves when there is a traffic jam.
Take this situation for instance..... If a bus is trying to make a "U" turn from one side, the cars and then other heavy vehicles behind it stop (they gotto...coz there is no room for them to go past the bus).... then comes our bikers... they try to sneak in behind the bus and whooz past the bus in the front before the bus makes the turn... Then slowly as the bus moves forward...bigger vehicles start sneaking in. The other side is not any better either. Nobody cares a damn to wait for 15 seconds max for the bus to make the turn and then move! As if they were being pursued by 20 to 40 goondas who are trying to take the life out of them! So when there is a problem on the other side..... the bus cannot make a move backwards..... if it does...it would crash in to atleast 4 two wheelers! Its like pouring water in to a glass half filled with ice.... the water tries to sneak in to all the gaps left by the ice cubes.
It has got to the level now that even if a person tries to follow the rules.... he is honked out of the road. Happened to me couple of times as well. Try stopping near the "railway crossing" when the gate if closed... people behind you start honking as if you were doing some thing illegal. They expect every two wheeler to cross the gate by doing what ever is takes to go beneath the gate. Why? No body knows. Why could not we wait for the train to pass? Just that every body have been doing this for ages... let me do this as well. The way people jump the signals, the disregard they show for onwalkers, the way pedestrians organize themselves.... everything brings the lack of discipline to the front!
Now, take the same person to US. Voila! What an amazing turn around in discipline? Stops in signal in "Orange" ("Orange" light earlier meant that you need to accelerate as fast as you can to go past the signal before it turns "Red"). How? We have always easily adjusted ourselves to rules imposed on us by others than the rules imposed by our own government. We are loyal to other goverments more than we are to our government. Yeah the Indian mentality....
Its been 59 years since we lost an inspiring leader who instilled discipline in us... who instilled the faith in our own country... who taught us that self-discipline is MOST WANTED amongst us.
Today, we have forgot him, his principles, what he taught us, how he wanted us to live. SHAME! Had it not been for Godse, Mahatma would have shot himself today after seeing the lack of discipline in today's Indian life!
If only we pledge ourselves to conduct better.....
5 comments:
("Orange" light earlier meant that you need to accelerate as fast as you can to go past the signal before it turns "Red")
ROTFL, good one man... I cud see your frustration from your post...
I think the only way to rectify this problem and bring in more road discipline to our fellow indians is to cancel all licenses (batch by batch), impose strict rules to get an LLR again and then license (so that people re-learn all the basics), make sure that a person is given license to drive a vehicle only if he clears the tests (not thru a broker where he gives Bit) and most importantly, bring the "Ticketing" system in India where ur license gets cancelled if u r caught (Indian Mentality???) more than 3 times...
But for tat the traffic police department should cooperate! So if we drill down, the entire Indian administration should change.... But that is not feasible in the near future..
So the best bet will be to cultivate some basic self discipline and realize that "Dying is your right and Killing isn't!"
Glad you got the point! How I wish every Indian reads the blog and agress with me?
agreed.
but difficult to follow.. after all I'm an Indian :-))
Prashanth,
There's actually a pretty simple reason for this - it's law and order. If I skip a redlight in the US and a cop sees me, I'm pretty sure I'll get a ticket for $100-$200, AND I'll have to to the local court and waste atleast half a day etc. The cop will not care if I'm a big-shot's daughter, the CEO of some major company, etc. - I'll still be held responsible for running a light. On the other hand in India, if a cop catches me, I know that I'll probably be able to pay him off, threaten him with my ties to the local political leader, and basically get away scot-free.
As an example : my richie-rich cousin, who drove pretty rashly in India, came to the States, and was caught drunk-driving. He paid a hefty fine, and they suspended his license for 6 months - he had to depend on his wife and public transportation for that time. He drives pretty carefully now (atleast in the US).
India has enough laws, it is the implementation which is lacking. Enforce laws and attitudes will change over-night.
@ odyssey: Thanks for agreeing with me. I know it is pretty difficult. Only that I am expecting few to join the bandwagon and hope the rest would catch up some time.
@ amodini: Thanks for your views. Yes, the rules and the way it is being enforced plays a pretty important role. But once you have experienced it here... u are careful here.. why not carry the same attitude back to home country? I know this might sound pretty theoritical... but it comes out of driving in India.. Its a night mare really these days.
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