[Queryanalyzer]

Originally Posted by carwatcher

The biased newspaper like Hindu has done what most of the media is known to be capable of, giving it some sensationalism.

But every one seem to forget that after 70 years of Independence the one of main mission of the Govt is Cleanliness, Toilets, etc which highlight a lot how much we have developed.
...
One more point I would specifically like to mention that there is a good possibility of damage, scratching, etc would have done by children too. But our mentality is that we judge the premiumness of any brand by the purchase experience of that brand. If the sales representative allows our kids to create havoc, then that brand is excellent, if one politely requests us to have a watch on our kids, its called arrogant.

The Hindu article is a satirical one. "Mathrubootham" letters are meant as such.
But I couldnt agree with you more on the other aspects. I am sure kids/young adult caused a lot of damage. Most Indian parents seem to let their kids "loose" when they are out with their kids.
Also a lot of people feel entitled, "I have paid for the ticket so I have every right to do as I wish". And I strongly believe we Indian are all hypocrites. It will take generations to nurture culture and it must start at home.

[Quatro]

In my view, our society should also have more civic norms so that our common property is more protected. I don't believe laws or education is the real cause. Only if other people watching such act of vandalism will criticise and stop the person carrying out such acts. Our society needs to speak out more - so many reports of people just standing by when somebody is getting thrashed or is hurt - all of us need to change our behaviour and remove the apathy that features in our action.

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Originally Posted by carwatcher

Irrespective of North or South, we Indians are famous for our Etiquettes worldwide, so No point in blaming each other, but still if one wishes to get enlightened, have a two minute chat with Janitor on any Metro Airport, he or she will enlighten you about the toilet manners of people from the South.

Slightly OT - this is very interesting.. Could you please enlighten what is that etiquette used exclusively by South Indians? Never heard of it..

Spike

[carwatcher]

Never heard of it, then do some internet search, for a start check the Quirky signs thread on TBhp itself where the word Toilet is mentioned. If still unsuccessful, PM me, would certainly help you.

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

Slightly OT - this is very interesting.. Could you please enlighten what is that etiquette used exclusively by South Indians? Never heard of it..

Spike

[DImPo]

Many would agree that this type of incident would not have happened 20 or 25 years ago. In my opinion, we the citizens of India are slowly losing our ethics and self conscience which was once imbibed in every Indian.

The way we drive our vehicles on the wrong side without fear, disobeying a traffic signal in broad daylight in the presence of our children, honk at other vehicles even in B2B traffic and the disrespect we show to pedestrians while driving etc are all proof that our country is getting poorer in all moral ethics.

Of course we all are highly educated but somewhere in our heart, we lack the intuition to be a morally responsible citizen. We do not require fear of law because it would work only if the implementation of law is effective. But, what we require is conscience so that we will not do a unlawful thing even if we are sure that no body is watching.

So, in short, we Indians need to introspect and check our moral quotient.

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by carwatcher

but still if one wishes to get enlightened, have a two minute chat with Janitor on any Metro Airport, he or she will enlighten you about the toilet manners of people from the South.

Originally Posted by SPIKE ARRESTOR

Slightly OT - this is very interesting.. Could you please enlighten what is that etiquette used exclusively by South Indians? Never heard of it..

Ignore this fellow - clearly a rather stupid troll trying to get a rise out of others.

I do hope they had some CCTV footage or something to bring these vandals to justice. A small fine isn't enough - it's clear that good civic sense needs to be beaten into these people the hard way.

[hellmet]

Vandalism exists in every country. But the interesting thing to note in many developed nations is the cleanup / repairs / fixes that happen swiftly after an incident. This is currently missing in India.

India has made great strides when it comes to building and inaugurating new infrastructure but is lacking when it comes to continued maintenance and basically keeping an eye on what it builds.

We'll get there soon, but meanwhile, it may make sense to avoid region-based discussions and/or prejudices in a healthy forum such as this.

[Sawyer]

Originally Posted by DImPo

The way we drive our vehicles on the wrong side without fear, disobeying a traffic signal in broad daylight in the presence of our children, honk at other vehicles even in B2B traffic and the disrespect we show to pedestrians while driving etc are all proof that our country is getting poorer in all moral ethics.

Of course we all are highly educated

I agree; and this demonstrates that this is not a have/have not issue. One then also questions that use of the word "educated" to apply to us; Education is much more than IT or business skills, or being good with the tables and maths/getting 99% or topping the common entrance tests.

The point about the way we misbehave in front of our children is also an excellent one. We pass on modes of behaviour to our children in the way we pass on biological DNA, because children learn best by example. Unfortunately, we are busy setting all the wrong ones for them, so another generation is condemned to behave the same loutish way that also usually makes us very unwelcome tourists abroad.

In Europe, the phrase "Ugly American" is common. I am afraid we will be "Ugly Indians" globally very soon.

[Sawyer]

The other point is how utterly useless are "missions" for cleanliness, toilets or anything else. Leaders take brooms as part of PR exercises and of marketing themselves. Unless these missions are deeply connected to and driven from the grassroots for as long as they need to take root there, they are as hollow as the first mission I remember from decades ago - the Garibi Hatao one. Words, Words and more Words; we are good at that. Meaningful and day in day out actions, we struggle with.

Mods to please note that I am unable to edit the preceding post for reasons of time elapsed.

[drsingh]

'Tragedy of the commons' at work.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

Things will get better over time. The same was witnessed when the Delhi metro was launched. Things have become better over time. People form queues without supervision now and there is general good behaviour all around. Nuisance causing elements/ignorant elements will learn civic norms of behaviour over time. I think the public announcement system in the metro using popular TV /Radio news readers constantly playing recorded messages to keep things clean/encouraging public responsibility is a fantastic idea. Other than that, people have been stealing headphones from airports all over the world since eternity

[kuriancjohn]

I am only hoping it is a one-off incident. The Tejas Express continues to run and I believe no such incident has been reported after that.
Amidst all the speculations, what stands out is when people claim that they already "knew" such incidents were bound to happen on a luxury train. If so, why is not happening any more ?

[BNR]

Quick Question:

Does the Tejas express have sleeper class (with berths)?

[AlphaLamb]

Originally Posted by batterylow

This is why we cannot have good things in India.


Today's Hindu has a satirical article on the same subject.

batterylow, nice catch with the article.

This article though satirical, sums up one of the root cause of the problem that we as a society are not mature enough to handle public amenities.

[SoumenD]

Originally Posted by BNR

Quick Question:

Does the Tejas express have sleeper class (with berths)?

No. The Bombay-Goa one atleast is a chair car like JanShatabdi, only more luxurious.

About the incident , agreed we Indians lack civic sense towards public property but we cant really overlook the fact that Mumbai/Pune-Goa route is a highly lucrative route and if this one succeeds the private bus service would be hit severely. Lot of people(including politicians) wouldn't really want this to succeed.

So I wouldn't really blanket-curse the junta. Guess we need to wait to see what measures are taken to arrest such issues. CCTV installations and some patrolling cops(if not there already?) should be a good start.

Back in my school/college days when my family was in a small town of jharkhand we used to have only 1 express(Janshatabdi) in whole day. Initially that was attacked(for robbery) by naxalites a few times following which permanent patrol parties were deployed on the train and the crime stopped.

[vamsi.kona]

If a person is afraid of being caught and punished for his/her acts then many such things would stop. While education, as many have suggested here, would address the issue to some extant, I doubt if all the vandals were uneducated. I see many IT employees in Hyderabad coming out of Raheja IT park and go in the wrong way because otherwise they would have to go for about 500 mtrs to take a 'U' turn. I believe many would have noticed across many cities, that the moment a traffic cop is at the signal everyone stops behind the stop line. It is we as citizens who have to inculcate the habit of being civil in our children so that at least the next generation can be better law abiding citizens.

As for this case I believe the train has security camera's so the video footage should be seen and those who are identified should be shamed by publishing their photos across social media and then slap a case.