Land of Indiscipline

My tour manager in Europe said that Europeans have discipline in their blood. (Went on a fantastic Europe trip - working on a loooong post)

We Indians seem to have indiscipline in our blood.

Just a few instances…

Cenotaph Road Flyover Inauguration

They built a flyover on Cenotaph Road… when the roads were finally laid after a year of construction work, people started walking on the flyover. It is a blissful experience in a city like Chennai and not many are so fortunate (obviously). I walked a day before the inauguration. It was beautiful, yellow lights were strung up on both sides; the road was clean and smooth. I was walking down it in a happy, peaceful mood, when a kid who was riding his bicycle there wheeled around and stopped in the centre of the road & spat on it.

I was taken aback. It is a beautiful tar road, which the corporation had taken pains to lay – something we should appreciate, not spit on with cringe-inducing nonchalance. Couldn’t he see the freshly laid road? Couldn’t he understand it was for his own good? The Chief Minister didn’t inaugurate the flyover. This boy did. In true indifferent-ungrateful-Chennai-idiot style. He seemed to say “This is how I welcome development. And how I take care of my city.” Clap clap clap. Keep it up. Namma ooru romba uruppudum.

Traffic Police set an example

How many times have people been unnecessarily (and for a real reason) caught by the traffic police, legitimately charged fines or escaped with a bribe? There was an instance when I almost got caught by a traffic policeman for crossing the stop line at a signal near my house (there were a few more vehicles there – all of them were caught, but I managed a wily escape through an alternate route while the cop wasn’t looking… it was really unfair! Do you know at how many places policemen encourage us to cross the stop line at signals where they have turnings, to let the traffic behind us move in peace?). I got caught by the police twice; once for parking in Pondy Bazaar at a place where there was no “no parking” sign – apparently parking zones would have “two-wheeler parking” boards. The zone is at one end of Pondy Bazaar. How was I supposed to know? (Read my article “Pondy Bejaar” to know how the traffic police took my petrol money to buy Vijayadasami gifts.)

I nearly forgot what I was going to say in my indignation. One of the newest examples our traffic police uncles have set for us – a traffic policeman was way ahead of the stop line at the Cenotaph Road-Turnbulls Road junction – as if telling the others, “Why fear, I am here! The traffic policeman guiding us (no signal yet, after the flyover construction) will not fine you.” He was almost in the middle of the junction, giving barely enough space for heavy vehicles to freely turn right. The other policeman didn’t even care about what a wonderful example his colleague was setting.

Our City Bumpkins

Stupid people drive normal people mad. There are thousands of dumb idiots on the roads who don’t know why we honk horns at them, don’t understand why we drive across pedestrian crossings when the signal turns green and why we shout at them while they walk in the middle of narrow roads.

Groups of people wait at the Tidel Park junction, for the moment the signal turns green. They wait till vehicles rush across the road and with a steely determined expression, cross the road, stepping back slightly only when we vroom up and go at an I-will-crash-into-you speed to show who is the boss. I don’t know why on earth they can’t figure out when to cross. There is even a walkover bridge close by and they don’t even have to wait at the signal if they use it. Why the hell are they not using the bridge?

There are also people who happily climb over the median and cross at different points on OMR. They don’t even think about what speeds the vehicles would be coming at. I’ve touched 80 on the road. It is that free. How dumb can pedestrians get?

The third group of people is those who think they own the narrow streets they live on. Some walk right in the middle of them, even though many leave at least 2 metres on the side of the road as they walk (we can’t expect these people to be smarter or more concerned than that). The other day, as I was entering a narrow lane, two women were walking in the middle with hardly enough space for my bike to enter. I honked my horn once. She didn’t respond. I went closer and honked my horn loudly and repeatedly. She turned around, shocked at how I was close enough to crash into her. I asked her indignantly why she was walking in the middle of the road. I don’t know if she heard me clearly through my helmet. But I wasn’t able to tolerate it.

How do we stop these acts? Chennai as a whole should develop a conscience. Rigid rules have been needed for long in our country and it is not an impossible task to enforce them. Why can’t our country be like Europe? We’re humans, and humans can change! Let us make 2010 and every year ahead, the year of discipline!