Lack of Planning or Foresight: I stay in Kothrud in Pune. This area was hinterland about 20 years back. There must have probably been farms or wastelands. Then somebody got an idea of developing this area to attract investors from Mumbai who wanted second homes in Pune. Now when you are developing a new area for urbanization wouldn’t it be a good idea to develop it in a planned way. Ensure that roads are of uniform width, mostly straight line and plots are allotted accordingly?
But no. There was haphazard development leading to narrow access roads in some places, and extremely broad roads in others, plots encroaching on roads leading to twisting and turning paths, no developmental guidelines for builders building complexes within their allotted plots leading to minimal space devoted to common areas like internal roads, gardens parking spots etc. Buildings and rowhouses built as close to each other as possible so as to maximize profits rather than provide a pleasant living experience to the residents.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Driving on Indian Roads
On the road this lack of respect manifest even more glaringly. People have absolutely no respect for other people sharing the road with them. Here I am not talking about following the traffic rules or lane markings. That’s difficult as it is given the overcrowded roads and myriad denizens occupying them.
But simple things like not blocking a lane because we want to join a main road from a side road, changing lanes only after letting the car behind you have sufficient warning, letting the car in front of you into your lane if he is giving a signal, honking relentlessly just because the car in front is stalled or slow in getting off the mark at the signal. Simple things like that would make the roads so much easier to traverse on.
There are two types of bad drivers in my opinion on Indian roads.
1. Big and Powerful: I have the big car fast car. I own the road. All slower smaller cars need to get out of the way. I know that if I hit somebody I will face minimum damage.
2. Small and Idiotic: I am a small two /three wheeler or 800. I can get in and out of very small places and corners. I will do that and the other cars can just watch out for me. I don’t care that if there is an accident I will suffer maximum injury.
As you can see above the bad driving behavior cuts across social, economic and educational strata. I have seen employees of Hi Tech companies, managers in big firms (based on the cars they drive) drive the same way as say an Indica, Sumo or Qualis taxi driver.
So what makes us behave this way on the road? What makes us behave this way in life?
This last weekend I made my regular trip from Pune to Mumbai via the expressway. It just glaringly brought out the difference between the two cultures once again. People in fast cars just feel that the expressway is their birthright to drive at manic speed and don’t care to share the road with others at all. They will zoom down the fast lane and if god forbid you are in that lane at a speed below 120 kmph will start flashing their headlights into your rearview mirror or start honking like crazy as if they have a fire to put out somewhere down the line.
This was particularly disturbing during the return trip which we made in the night as the flashing lights make it more difficult for you to drive.
The public servant is treated with respect. They may do their job at a slower pace than in a corporate environment but will not ask for anything under the table or make you run around endlessly. They will also talk to you civilly. Everything will be organized.
Here we treat govt workers with the scantest of respect and vice versa. This does not lead to a very good transaction and increases levels of frustration and inefficiency.
But simple things like not blocking a lane because we want to join a main road from a side road, changing lanes only after letting the car behind you have sufficient warning, letting the car in front of you into your lane if he is giving a signal, honking relentlessly just because the car in front is stalled or slow in getting off the mark at the signal. Simple things like that would make the roads so much easier to traverse on.
There are two types of bad drivers in my opinion on Indian roads.
1. Big and Powerful: I have the big car fast car. I own the road. All slower smaller cars need to get out of the way. I know that if I hit somebody I will face minimum damage.
2. Small and Idiotic: I am a small two /three wheeler or 800. I can get in and out of very small places and corners. I will do that and the other cars can just watch out for me. I don’t care that if there is an accident I will suffer maximum injury.
As you can see above the bad driving behavior cuts across social, economic and educational strata. I have seen employees of Hi Tech companies, managers in big firms (based on the cars they drive) drive the same way as say an Indica, Sumo or Qualis taxi driver.
So what makes us behave this way on the road? What makes us behave this way in life?
This last weekend I made my regular trip from Pune to Mumbai via the expressway. It just glaringly brought out the difference between the two cultures once again. People in fast cars just feel that the expressway is their birthright to drive at manic speed and don’t care to share the road with others at all. They will zoom down the fast lane and if god forbid you are in that lane at a speed below 120 kmph will start flashing their headlights into your rearview mirror or start honking like crazy as if they have a fire to put out somewhere down the line.
This was particularly disturbing during the return trip which we made in the night as the flashing lights make it more difficult for you to drive.
The public servant is treated with respect. They may do their job at a slower pace than in a corporate environment but will not ask for anything under the table or make you run around endlessly. They will also talk to you civilly. Everything will be organized.
Here we treat govt workers with the scantest of respect and vice versa. This does not lead to a very good transaction and increases levels of frustration and inefficiency.
Renewing my Indian ness
I have stayed for 4 years in North America and have just recently returned to India. Before going to Canada I had only read, heard or seen on TV about the Western world. It’s comforts, advanced society, technology, cars, roads etc were something we could only dream about. India was slowly catching up with the West they used to say. Especially in the metros. We are getting all the latest electronic items, consumer products like Coke, Nestle chocolates. The latest cars are being sold in India including Mercedes Maybach, BMW and even Rolls Royce.
There are so many flyovers being built in Mumbai, The roads are being concretised, the Mumbai Pune Expressway is like any US freeway…… and so on and so forth.
So it was a bit of optimism that I went to Canada thinking that (and I had expressed the same to a cousin of mine who had been there for almost 10 years) Bombay if not India would very soon be as modern and as efficient a place to stay in as say LA, New York or Toronto.
When I landed in Toronto the first thing that caught my eye was the impressive glass and steel airport, with moving walkways, escalators and efficient immigration and customs officials.
Once outside the airport in the taxi cab, the highways , the different cars and lane discipline on the road enamoured me. Everybody driving cars in the designated lanes, lane changing done after giving a signal and actually waiting for the driver in that lane to give you space and drivers actually giving space to incoming cars!!!
On coming back to India after 4 years, I realized that things haven’t really improved all that much. Its just got more crowded and the infrastructure (which I had seen starting to develop to take care of growth ) had really not kept up pace with the actual growth.
The roads were still inadequate to cope up with the traffic. This probably had led to more indiscipline on the road as now there were more people fighting for the same space on the road. As a result traffic in Mumbai which used to be reasonably disciplined was deteriorating to the levels of the rest of India where traffic lights were taken as an advisory and not as a rule to be obeyed. Traffic cops were treated with barely any respect. Pedestrians, two wheelers, rickshaws behaved as if it was the duty of the other residents of the road to look out for them and not their own.
While driving on the road one day (or rather while stuck in a traffic jam one day) a thought suddenly struck me.
All our life from childhood to adult hood we have been reinforced with one single idea about the Great Indian Culture. That is respect for others. I remember Raj Kapoor in one of his memorable films says to another character (who is conveniently Westernized) that the Indian Culture is so great and so respectful, humble and welcoming that even when we refuse to give alms to a beggar on the street we say ‘Maaf Karo’ or “Forgive me for I cannot give you any money”. That struck me as a very strong statement about India and made me feel good. Especially when this was juxtaposed against the callous Western attitudes where everybody was running behind money, there was no compassion etc.
However on staying in the West and after coming back I realized that this was not all true.
In the west there is definitely a value attached to every human being. This value does not depend upon the amount of money that person earns or his education. Its value because he is a human being. Everybody treats everybody with respect (except for US Border Security personnel!!!! They show respect for nobody and are as rude as you can possibly get.)
People say thank you to the Bus Driver while getting off a public transport bus. People say good morning or good evening to the Security Guard at the gate of the office or apartment complex. Some people even say Good Morning to perfect strangers if you are out on a morning walk and pass by their gardens.
This is something I have never seen happen in India. We generally tend to ignore all those below us in the social strata. When was the last time you remember saying Thank You to a rickshaw, taxi or bus driver? When did you last say Good Morning to the Security Guard at the gate of your building or office?
When was the last time we ever said THANK YOU????
There are so many flyovers being built in Mumbai, The roads are being concretised, the Mumbai Pune Expressway is like any US freeway…… and so on and so forth.
So it was a bit of optimism that I went to Canada thinking that (and I had expressed the same to a cousin of mine who had been there for almost 10 years) Bombay if not India would very soon be as modern and as efficient a place to stay in as say LA, New York or Toronto.
When I landed in Toronto the first thing that caught my eye was the impressive glass and steel airport, with moving walkways, escalators and efficient immigration and customs officials.
Once outside the airport in the taxi cab, the highways , the different cars and lane discipline on the road enamoured me. Everybody driving cars in the designated lanes, lane changing done after giving a signal and actually waiting for the driver in that lane to give you space and drivers actually giving space to incoming cars!!!
On coming back to India after 4 years, I realized that things haven’t really improved all that much. Its just got more crowded and the infrastructure (which I had seen starting to develop to take care of growth ) had really not kept up pace with the actual growth.
The roads were still inadequate to cope up with the traffic. This probably had led to more indiscipline on the road as now there were more people fighting for the same space on the road. As a result traffic in Mumbai which used to be reasonably disciplined was deteriorating to the levels of the rest of India where traffic lights were taken as an advisory and not as a rule to be obeyed. Traffic cops were treated with barely any respect. Pedestrians, two wheelers, rickshaws behaved as if it was the duty of the other residents of the road to look out for them and not their own.
While driving on the road one day (or rather while stuck in a traffic jam one day) a thought suddenly struck me.
All our life from childhood to adult hood we have been reinforced with one single idea about the Great Indian Culture. That is respect for others. I remember Raj Kapoor in one of his memorable films says to another character (who is conveniently Westernized) that the Indian Culture is so great and so respectful, humble and welcoming that even when we refuse to give alms to a beggar on the street we say ‘Maaf Karo’ or “Forgive me for I cannot give you any money”. That struck me as a very strong statement about India and made me feel good. Especially when this was juxtaposed against the callous Western attitudes where everybody was running behind money, there was no compassion etc.
However on staying in the West and after coming back I realized that this was not all true.
In the west there is definitely a value attached to every human being. This value does not depend upon the amount of money that person earns or his education. Its value because he is a human being. Everybody treats everybody with respect (except for US Border Security personnel!!!! They show respect for nobody and are as rude as you can possibly get.)
People say thank you to the Bus Driver while getting off a public transport bus. People say good morning or good evening to the Security Guard at the gate of the office or apartment complex. Some people even say Good Morning to perfect strangers if you are out on a morning walk and pass by their gardens.
This is something I have never seen happen in India. We generally tend to ignore all those below us in the social strata. When was the last time you remember saying Thank You to a rickshaw, taxi or bus driver? When did you last say Good Morning to the Security Guard at the gate of your building or office?
When was the last time we ever said THANK YOU????
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