[Redeemer8]

Originally Posted by hellmet

This is a story of an average, slightly upper middle class citizen in current day India, and his experiences with the system.

The system is for the (rich) people, of the (poor) people, by the (salaried class) people. The middle class is very aptly called the 'middle' class. I won't need to expand on that.

I can completely relate to what you've penned down in your entire post. It's a very harsh reality of life & an unfortunate scenario which we're forced to experience each day. I do hope, we find some bliss in the days to come!!

[Joe M]

Originally Posted by razorBlades

People (We) have become very arrogant, impatient and very very selfish.

If this is the case for us the middle class, think about the poor who cant afford it. Eventually they get angry at anyone who has money. We, the middle class get angry at people who misuse our money (tax). The people who have money & power get angry when someone asks how did he get money. Everyone is angry and arrogant!

Agree with you! Completely.

Hi Hellmet, you said it right. It is we, the taxpayers who pay for all these comedy by the politicians and officials.

Here the rich don’t obey rules because they are ‘rich’. The poor don’t obey the rules because they are the ‘poor’. Those who (are supposed to)enforce the laws are always seeking ways to being rich quickly by looting whoever he can find.

‘Driving’ here is like playing football. You find the gap, you dribble, you pass fast, you go left, you go right, you fight with others, and still, you reach your close destination only in 90 mins and extra time.

One opinion I strongly have is that like many foreign countries, we should introduce points system on driving licenses which gets reduced with each violation of traffic rules, and the driver’s license should be suspended at least for couple of years for driving irresponsibly multiple times. There should be surveillance systems in all main roads and junctions.

But for any rule to make any effect, there should be systems to monitor and punish the guilty.

Here whatever law-breaking we do, we can escape by bribing the official in charge or influencing a political leader. That makes everything pointless.

[somitra1981]

Guys, here's my latest contribution on this one.

When - Today morning at around 7.40 AM

Where - I was on service road(off Sarjapur Road) Near St. Johns Medical College & Koramangla 100 ft. road junction signal, waiting to take a left onto 100 ft. road towards Koramangla.

To start with, this is not a free left (from what i have understood after commuting every day for almost 2 months) and off course people routinely break the signal in the morning hours, though the traffic lights start operating.

I am waiting alone patiently with space on my left to accommodate one more vehicle(Signal is green for people on 100ft road, traffic is moving towards Koramangla from Madiwala side), next instance i see a vehicle standing on my left and there's a lady in a T fort behind me honking madly, forces the guy on my left to move ahead and break the signal, then she cuts across to the left, T-fort swerves like crazy,

Lady pauses may be for a second gives us a killer look, utters some thing, makes some hand gestures and zooms away towards Koramangla.

Guess what she was again waiting ahead of us on the Sony World junction near Barley'z/Taco Bell.

Looked like an educated person who was in plain hurry or with a T-Fort i guess some one from a rich/political family(and was angry on how can a common man like me could block her way)

I was clue less, me and my wife look at each other and wonder, if educated people behave like this why should we even curse the drivers of cabs/autos. The point i want to make here is that we are blaming the people who sit above us or below us in the pecking order, but sadly people like us (middle or cattle class) are also going the same way.

[rakesh_r]

Welcome to the group of The frustated.
I encounter this daily in my 50km office commute.When i do go on outstation postings(Germany,Thailand or Switzerland) i feel so relaxed while driving.No tensions,no honking,no rude behaviour.I found germans to be the most courteous.Nowadays commuting by car is a big pain.I started becoming less tolerant to such an extent that i always used to carry a pipe wrench with me while taking the car out to office while my 220 used to gather dust in the parking lot.The bike was taken out mostly for weekend purchases.This happened for nearly two years.Post marriage my wife got very much concerned about my health.She found me to be more calm while riding a bike.Upon her persistence i started taking the bike to office,but used to end up with an aching shoulder at the end of the day.Sold of the 220 and bought a ZMA.Now i reach home in 35 min as compared to the 1.5hrs it used to be by car(mostly due to traffic snarls).
Sometimes i feel why should i pay taxes.Why should i pay toll.The funny thing is you pay the toll and you start to go over pothole ridden roads right after the toll booth(bhpians commuting between Dahisar and Bandra would agree with this).Who will pay for the fuel we waste during idling in a traffic jam(because of bad roads).Why should we pay tax for the components that fail due to bad roads.
In the end its the typical law abiding who suffers the worst.

[roy_libran]

Contributing a recent experience:
--------------------------------
My wife is a newbie driver, and she was driving the Logan. A "L" sign was prominently displayed and blinkers were On. I was on the Co-Passenger seat.
We were on a bad patch, and there was a Speed Breaker coming up, just before a cut in the median. We were in the right most lane, because of the bad patch, but intending to go straight. Obviously my wife had slowed down there to a crawl and she was gently taking the car over the Bump.
A lady driving a Nissan Sunny, with her kid, overtook us from the Left, and cut across our lane to take the U-Turn, in quite a hurry. My wife had to brake in an emergency, else we would surely have collided.
Of course we were frustrated by her actions, and my wife gesticulated asking her to drive carefully. But, the lady dropped her window, shouted back something at us and gave my wife the Middle Finger, before driving off.

This whole thing made me very very angry, and I didn't want to play the Sucker here. Later, my wife and my friends had to talk me out of what I was planning to do with the Gurkha the next day!

[TheTeacher]

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

I have this very learned philanthropist and historian relative of mine, [had served IMF and WB]: he (and me, too) was optimistic that India is not too far away from actually becoming civilized

We live on hope, don't we?

Originally Posted by lapis_lazuli

Caveat: None of the other countries had such variety in culture, social norms, population or even weather, for that matter!

/begin rant

Therein lies the rub. Remember India was never a single country (as it it is now in terms of geographical boundaries, but a multitude of small kingdoms. A few kings united major portions of it (eg. Ashoka) for a while. The Muslim kings did that too, and the British continued it. Historically, we have been too different from each other, with too many seemingly small and inconsequential differences. But these are magnified out of proportion in India. That's why we have caste, within that a sect, within that a sub-sect that is further divided into deeper and deeper levels ad nauseum. This is in our DNA and will not change. The Muslims and the British took advantage of our divisiveness to conquer us - pitting one king against another, then stabbing the helping king in the back. This divisiveness manifests today most obviously in the multitude of political parties being created by constantly splitting existing ones. And so on.

Most other nations were not so diverse.

I am not hopeful anything like you said will happen in the next 75 years. The only way is to have a benevolent dictator (sort of like Lee Kuan Yew of Songapore) who needs to rule for two successive generations to change the midset of the newly born / growing generations. The only language we understand is Dhanda shastra; we are ill-suited for demo-crazy today.

/end rant

[Joe M]

It's a practice and rule here that who can raise their voice more wins. Be it a cab driver, a bus driver or rickshaw guy; be it totally wrong what he did - if he can win the argument, he's the one who did right. If you see, the first thing that happens after a minor accident is the fight between drivers. Since there's no facility for proving what actually happened, the only way of deciding what happened is through arguments and animated talks. Those who gets more angry or talks louder will be the guy who did the right thing.

It's high time cab operators replaced their rear-glass sticker "If found driving rash, call 9xxxxxxxxx" with "If found driving rash, throw a stone at this car". That would give better resolution to our problems.

[Mohan Mathew A]

I and my friends have discussed many times pooling money to buy a battered Mahindra jeep to use it as a battering ram to teach all those rude drivers a lesson. We could all use it when we need it. So far better sense has prevailed but one never knows what will happen

[trtraj]

Great Expression and I strongly agree all the points.

I remember the days when i thought about having a base ball stick to show the people who are putting me to break laws (still i won't do) also to carry a dozen of eggs to throw on the windshield of the stupid high beamers.

I strongly believe that all these things happens for following

1. Every vehicle driver thinking that one he drives is fastest, which leads to middle lane driving, or reckless driving

2. Every driver think that he is a robo with 6 set of eyes and so, they fold the mirrors and never even bothers the vehicles which comes behind

3. Every parent is encouraging kids to drive (without knowing the impact which they make to the society, and for themselves)

4. Every politician (even a loo cleaner in a party) think he is maharaj.

5. 95 % of drivers doesn't know what where and why the blind spots are !!

I still remember my friend said she failed in DL test in Scotland because she didn't turn her head to look on the blind spots, Eventually she had to clear a 30 minutes written exam which contains lots of basic knowledge.

The people driving opposite side that too with high beam in the night is the highest rate of frustration initiators.

And we as a middle class, we neither fight with them nor write to government. I feel shame to be !!

[WindRide]

Problems we, the minority, face is because of the backwardness of the majority. And the backwardness of the majority will continue as long as this country is run by the system of vote-bank politics and minority appeasement.

Confused? Think about it, and you will realise and accept why we, the minority, are left holding the short end of the stick most of the time.

Meanwhile, let me

[samikc]

It is easy to be a sucker, you know, I just need to suck what is thrown at me. I know it is easy to make a living in India, even the beggars survive. It is easy to be lazy and do nothing in life and still be surviving the global economic turmoil. I expect someone at every opportunity to do something for me and once it is done I try to find fault in that person. I start something important in life and then I let it slip without finishing. I like to dwell in dreams, rather taking the first step to make it a reality. I blame system for everything, but I like to take advantage of it. I want it to change but do not find courage to change it.

I am a middleclass slacker who every morning takes his prized car to office. I try to find a spot in my mind between anguish and bliss. I sometimes give mouthful to the driver around me and at times I accept the situation as a philosopher. I am a duality in a single body.

I like the government to impose fine so high on any signal jump that the car owner will think twice to do that (how about 30% of the vehicle cost at the time of signal jump). I like to make my country perfect and think everyone will follow the traffic rule or any other rule, for that matter, which does cause any inconvenience for me. 3% of us give tax; so the government should ensure some benefits to me. But sometime, like now after reading this thread, I feel something else.

I am part of the 3% tax payer who helps the poorest of the poor child get a square meal at the school. He or she may be going to the school just for that one square meal, and miracle of miracle he or she might pick up a word or two from a book.

I am part of the people who keep a house maid, who in turn provide for the family. Her husband treats her with little bit of respect in the night because she earns.

I can repair the paint work of my car if a bicycle hits my car in the morning hour, as that man may be in a hurry to reach workplace, where if he enters 5 minutes late he will get a half day of payment.

I feel good when I see in a small tea shop; a father stands with his daughter to buy five rupees chocolate on the first week of the month. I feel then, may be all not lost in my country, maybe I still have an outside chance to see her in a better place.

[mobike008]

Well written Hellmet and what you have mentioned is extremely correct and happens on a daily basis on our traffic congested roads

However, in my personal experience of driving in the same traffic conditions as you ( considering we both are from same city) have never been banged by any car/bike till date. Apart from minor brushes here and there, nothing that i ever needed to worry about.

Perhaps thats because of my driving style which is aggressive to say the least and i foresee things to avoid such situations or maybe iam plain lucky till now. Also, I note defensive driving will result in all other road users rolling all over you

Let me show you the flip side of the coin, these days roads are getting populated on a daily basis with new car owners (do not mean to offend anybody who has just learnt car driving) but, have not acquired the knack of driving on our roads. They make many mistakes for e.g :-

Driving too slow
Occupying the incorrect lane
Braking abruptly
Turning abruptly

Typical example of a biker banging into a car from back in majority of cases is abrupt braking. My two cents is we forget to look at other side of the coin many a times.

[gk01]

This is going to be one blockbuster of a thread!

It wouldn't be out of place to mention a book here. "Being Indian" by Pavan Varma. Should buy us all some peace.

Cheers!

[paras211]

You are the sucker when you started working hard and earning money. Until you get über rich you shall remain a sucker in this country. You will be humiliated by goons on the road. Babus in the government. And anyone with a little bit of power over you. The guy with a bigger vehicle , the guy with nothing to loose.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by somitra1981

It's your atitude and choices which differentiate you from the crowd, you decide what you want to do irrespective of the circumstances. It's easy to follow the rules when things are going smooth, the real test of character always lies in adverse conditions.

I totally agree with this. There is a perceptible difference in cities like Delhi and Bangalore. I always and still love Delhi. But after a 7 year stint in Bangalore when I returned to Delhi, I started appreciating the modern and peaceful nature of Bangalore. Right from the safety on the roads, to a simple task like asking for directions from a passerby, bangalore is way more compassionate than Delhi. Why? Mostly to due with the attitude and character of the society at large.

So even though all of OP's points are 100% correct and faced daily by us, I still feel there is hope we atleast can hold on to our values and hope gradually more people start following too.