Radhika Raj Narayan 10:59 AM, November 22nd, 2009

Another area of irritation for all of us is the chaotic traffic. The root cause for this is selfishness that permeates our society. It shows up everywhere. Chaos at bus-stops, chaos at railway stations, stampedes at fairs and public events, and of course, the mad traffic. Why? Dig deeper. When you stand in a queue at a bank or any counter, the first thing that happens is a hand appearing by your side, and pushing an envelope / cash ahead of you. Turn around and there is a person nonchalantly standing there, continuing to push ahead. The urge to 'get ahead of everyone else' overwhelms and suppresses any stray thought of consideration for the unfortunate being standing ahead. It is this irrational urge that makes us the laughing stock of the world when our people scramble to get ahead of the queue even at the departure gate at airports. These are educated people, many are 'knowledge workers' (knowledge? what knowledge?) - yet, their brain stops functioning logically, the 'knowledge' evaporates into thin air and they join the crowd, jostling to get ahead. The fact that they all have boarding passes with their seats marked on them, escapes their attention. And the same happens when alighting from the aircraft. If it was not for the narrow aisles, they would cause a stampede there too. No one cares for the ambulance siren blaring desperately for right of way. They block every possible lane. People merrily jump red lights and even hit the rear of the vehicle that stops for the signal to change. To take a right turn they go to the exteme right of the road (the wrong side), take a right and continue on the wrong side, in the face of oncoming traffic till they find an opening. Then they dart across with scant regard for anyone else, least of all pedestrians. They drive with the high beam on, blinding the oncoming car. They flash the headlight rudely to demand right of way. The pedestrian is equally indisciplined and will cross wherever it suits him / her. Foot over-bridges are never used and are always devoid of any pedestrian traffic. Indian culture? No, Indian culture is now unfortunately confined to the minority of citizens who are misfits in their own society; who are derided if they show courtesy, who are violently attacked if they stand up for themselves or anyone else. Cntrast this to the situation in the US, or Europe, or even China. The pedestrian has absolute right of way and cvehicles will invariably stop for them. However the pedestrian too, never crosses at random places on the road, always at the zebra crossing. Cars neer use high beam at oncoming traffic. And the headlight flash is used to indicate 'please go first'. In China the penalty for the first-time offence of jumping the red light is - believe it or not - permanent confiscationof your licence, permanent confiscation of the vehicle AND jail for a month. And here??? It's not even funny.

Nanda Ramesh 04:34 PM, November 24th, 2009

Radhika,
Good points. I wonder about this so much that I wrote on my blog about it a while back!
http://jumpshots.blogspot.com/2009/08/origins-of-indians-anti-community.html
It is a mystery I feel.
Some things you expect in your write up wont work here. Ex: Pedestrians crossing only at zebra crossings. This is because our foot traffic is very high and dense and we need things right across the streets unlike in US where that is not the case.
I feel our urban planners need to do things which fit our culture and expectations. Instead they ape the western concrete jungles meant for car traffic and build flyovers and underpasses forcing pedestrians into extreme situations!
As for courtesy in Q's and traffic lanes, the only way is to adopt that Chinese extreme measure. That would mean double/triple the constables with POWER to fine and NO bribes or "connections" giving the culprits a free pass. Possible? Maybe..lets see. :)

Pramod Naik 10:57 PM, November 27th, 2009

Totally agree with Radhika Rajnarayan's views. The airport scramble for seats is ingrained in our blood from fighting for seats on city buses and deeper than that, a long-ingrained fear of not having anything to eat or live on. I guess that's why we're rushing to get our hands on anything or everything, be it airline seats, trashy souvenirs at malls or just junk handouts. The worst example is the airport situation all over the world, where Indian travelers simply do not care for any discipline. After a mad scramble for seats that have been reserved for them months ahead (albeit at cheap rates), they half-heartedly settle down with that sheepish grin of accomplishment. It's the same on the streets of Bangalore too. I guess you can take Indians out of India, but not the Indian out of Indians!

B Dutta 11:45 PM, January 20th, 2010

It just feels so wrong to see people not yielding to an ambulance. And believe me it's not an uncommon sight.