From my last post about Indian media, I started getting uneasy. I had made an argument there where I sought to find if Indians themselves were responsible to give rise to such pathetic media in the first place. This set me thinking in a very different direction. To make my argument, this time I will start with an example.

When I return home from office in the evening, I come across one junction that is forever jammed by the traffic. Reason is clear – no one follows the rule. As far as a police constable is doing his job everything is fine. As soon as he is off, things start getting worse and become worst at some stage, before becoming normal. This happens DAILY!
When I got stuck the last time, I did a different thing than I usually do, and which we all do easily – swearing at the guy in front and honking. I got down from my bike, went to the junction, and started to regulate the traffic. Some people came out from their cars too and we managed to straighten things out. I called up the traffic police control and told him about this, to which he sheepishly informed that he’d sent someone immediately at this place.

I asked myself, “Why are we like this?” Almost 50% of people driving on Indian urban roads today are people with decent enough education and decent enough living that are essential to have a rational mind. I am making an exception for auto and taxi drivers. So why do we just sit in our cars and swear our way to glory thinking that some miracle will smoothen the traffic. I am sure most of us would agree that this is true not just for traffic but for everything. We swear at the government officials for slowing down the work, we swear at the govt. that our infrastructure sucks, we swear at our neighbors because they play loud music in the night, and that’s what we do – we swear. Sum total of the swearing – nothing. We achieve nothing but more frustration in our lives.

What if today each of us went on the roads, maintained lanes (wherever possible)? What if, we really told the police officer standing there eating supari that it’d be great if he can help the jam with you? What if we pushed that babu for our work and don’t give him any money? What if today when we enter a junction on road, we stop for sometime to see the traffic, show some patience and then start again? We are a country known for our virtue of restrain, so why are we so eager to get everything done NOW?

A lot of questions and the answer I want to give is that it all lies with us. The chunk of educated and learned mass that can make a difference not by just thinking and discussing in their cozy living rooms, but getting out there and making it happen.

- Old post of mine..