[Evolution_VIII]

I have been following this thread for last 8-10 days. First of all my condolences to the family of the deceased and I wish speedy recovery for the injured including the driver and passenger in the car who were beaten up by the crowd. I do not want to enter the blame game, do not want to debate if the driver or the cyclist was at fault. Just want to express my general opinions.
In this case the car was driven in dark without head lights; this clearly puts the odds against the driver. But in general, the ignorance of the pedestrians/cyclists, mob mentality and attitude of the media remain major concerns. Just remembered a few of incidents happened recently.
A cyclist was cycling on the divider to avoid traffic when he lost his balance and fall on road. The car in front of me braked hard and managed to stop centimeters from him. But from that scene it appeared to some onlookers that the cyclist is down there on road because the car has hit him, and they started abusing the driver and one of them even broke the windshield. When a couple of elderly people watching all this came and said that there was no contact and it isn’t the drivers fault, the people walked away saying things like ‘these rich kid should be punished for driving carelessly’. The guy behind the wheel was standing there shocked with a broken windshield wondering what is his fault.
In October last year, while driving home from airport after picking up a friend. I was at the Leela Hotel signal when a rickshaw banged into me from behind, yes a standstill car. My tail lamp was broken and bumper was torn. When I asked rickshaw driver to either compensate or come along to police station, the people around including the traffic cop started saying ‘jaane do, bechara garib hai’. The Cops let him off the hook for mere 500 bucks, I haven’t yet got any update on my complaint and I ended up paying over 10k to fix my car. All this pain for not being a ‘garib’!!! Had those people said same thing if I had damaged the rickshaw?
2 years ago, my company bus hit a 3 year old on service road of Western Express Highway in Goregaon. The bus was coming out from company gate which opens on the service road. The kids from the nearby slum were playing hide and sick behind the vehicles parked on the service road. The bus was merely doing 30 kmph when the child suddenly emerged from behind a parked vehicle and ran directly in front of front left wheel of the bus. Mob gathered, beat up the driver and damaged the bus. Later the family of the deceased got 2 or 3 L rupees compensation from the travel company who owned the bus, driver had serious injuries due to being beaten by mob not to say that he lost his job. We still remember the horrifying scene, the company buses later stated taking longer rout by going in other direction and taking U turn to come on highway. The kids resumed their play on road next day and still play there till date. Government has spent millions of rupees to build that road (which is in turn paid by tax payers like me and you) which is used by these slum dwellers to build slum and used by their kids as their play ground. Imagine same thing happening with a kid from a well to do family and everyone would have blamed the parents of that kid for being careless. I think may be some people are excused to be ignorant on road just because they are branded as ‘poor’.
I have seen many people meeting with an accident trying to avoid an ignorant pedestrian, injuring themselves and damaging the car. But never seen mob abusing or beating up that suicidal pedestrian for causing all this. May be because in our country, owning a car is still considered a luxury and the ‘rich’ who can afford this luxury are seen as the villain. Will the media run the stories with same enthusiasm if a car owner is hurt because a of a ignorant cyclist or because of misinformed and irate mob? May be it amuses media and the people to print and read about spoilt rich harming the ‘poor’.

I repeat, I do not want to say that it’s the pedestrian/cyclist who is always at the fault or it’s the driver who is always at the fault. Accidents can happen due to mistakes of either of these, but it’s the driver of the car who ends up getting beaten by crowd, getting branded by media as a ‘spoilt rich devil’ and getting bashed by the people who discuss these stories. You have to be either politically influential or a ‘garib’ to cause the mess and get out of it with no blame.

Above views are my personal opinions and based on my personal experiences. Not everyone will agree on those, but this is an open and unbiased forum and everyone is entitled to have and express their own opinion. Some of you who had similar experiences in past might agree with me. Others who don’t, I happily agree to disagree with them.

[daemon]

Originally Posted by Evolution_VIII

Government has spent millions of rupees to build that road (which is in turn paid by tax payers like me and you) which is used by these slum dwellers to build slum and used by their kids as their play ground. Imagine same thing happening with a kid from a well to do family and everyone would have blamed the parents of that kid for being careless. I think may be some people are excused to be ignorant on road just because they are branded as ‘poor’.

May be because in our country, owning a car is still considered a luxury and the ‘rich’ who can afford this luxury are seen as the villain.

May be it amuses media and the people to print and read about spoilt rich harming the ‘poor’.

You have to be either politically influential or a ‘garib’ to cause the mess and get out of it with no blame.

To those who are aware of the ant and the grasshopper story, India does seem to be a place where the establishment penalises the hard working ant while giving away free goodies/benefits to the lazy grasshopper.

Not saying that all the poor are lazy, but yes, there is no justice in a world where the middle class struggle to get to work everyday by public transport, pay income tax from money earned out of such hardships, save every penny and take loans to buy a house and small car for the weekends and the 'garib' get free housing provided by the government, paid out of the middle class tax money! just because they squatted on public land which was again developed using such tax money. Not only is the middle class short changed here, but then also on the road, where his prized possesion, his brand new car, gets scratched by some irresponsible idiot richkshaw driver who doesnt know the meaning of lanes, overtakes from any side, even if its the oncoming traffic's side! ... then there are these nuisance cyclists who think they have a right to ride their cycles on the middle of the road near the divider!!! ...can anybody who has been enlightened about this please tell me what could be the reason for them to ride their cycles which have no lights whatsoever, in the middle of the road ...even in pitch dark!!!

A country is run on the back of its middle class, the rich bribe their way out of trouble and the 'garib' ...well, the 'garib' mob their way out!

[djpaw]

Originally Posted by Evolution_VIII

I have been following this thread for last 8-10 days. First of all my condolences to the family of the deceased and I wish speedy recovery for the injured including the driver and passenger in the car who were beaten up by the crowd. I do not want to enter the blame game, do not want to debate if the driver or the cyclist was at fault. Just want to express my general opinions.
In this case the car was driven in dark without head lights; this clearly puts the odds against the driver. But in general, the ignorance of the pedestrians/cyclists, mob mentality and attitude of the media remain major concerns. Just remembered a few of incidents happened recently.
A cyclist was cycling on the divider to avoid traffic when he lost his balance and fall on road. The car in front of me braked hard and managed to stop centimeters from him. But from that scene it appeared to some onlookers that the cyclist is down there on road because the car has hit him, and they started abusing the driver and one of them even broke the windshield. When a couple of elderly people watching all this came and said that there was no contact and it isn’t the drivers fault, the people walked away saying things like ‘these rich kid should be punished for driving carelessly’. The guy behind the wheel was standing there shocked with a broken windshield wondering what is his fault.
In October last year, while driving home from airport after picking up a friend. I was at the Leela Hotel signal when a rickshaw banged into me from behind, yes a standstill car. My tail lamp was broken and bumper was torn. When I asked rickshaw driver to either compensate or come along to police station, the people around including the traffic cop started saying ‘jaane do, bechara garib hai’. The Cops let him off the hook for mere 500 bucks, I haven’t yet got any update on my complaint and I ended up paying over 10k to fix my car. All this pain for not being a ‘garib’!!! Had those people said same thing if I had damaged the rickshaw?
2 years ago, my company bus hit a 3 year old on service road of Western Express Highway in Goregaon. The bus was coming out from company gate which opens on the service road. The kids from the nearby slum were playing hide and sick behind the vehicles parked on the service road. The bus was merely doing 30 kmph when the child suddenly emerged from behind a parked vehicle and ran directly in front of front left wheel of the bus. Mob gathered, beat up the driver and damaged the bus. Later the family of the deceased got 2 or 3 L rupees compensation from the travel company who owned the bus, driver had serious injuries due to being beaten by mob not to say that he lost his job. We still remember the horrifying scene, the company buses later stated taking longer rout by going in other direction and taking U turn to come on highway. The kids resumed their play on road next day and still play there till date. Government has spent millions of rupees to build that road (which is in turn paid by tax payers like me and you) which is used by these slum dwellers to build slum and used by their kids as their play ground. Imagine same thing happening with a kid from a well to do family and everyone would have blamed the parents of that kid for being careless. I think may be some people are excused to be ignorant on road just because they are branded as ‘poor’.
I have seen many people meeting with an accident trying to avoid an ignorant pedestrian, injuring themselves and damaging the car. But never seen mob abusing or beating up that suicidal pedestrian for causing all this. May be because in our country, owning a car is still considered a luxury and the ‘rich’ who can afford this luxury are seen as the villain. Will the media run the stories with same enthusiasm if a car owner is hurt because a of a ignorant cyclist or because of misinformed and irate mob? May be it amuses media and the people to print and read about spoilt rich harming the ‘poor’.

I repeat, I do not want to say that it’s the pedestrian/cyclist who is always at the fault or it’s the driver who is always at the fault. Accidents can happen due to mistakes of either of these, but it’s the driver of the car who ends up getting beaten by crowd, getting branded by media as a ‘spoilt rich devil’ and getting bashed by the people who discuss these stories. You have to be either politically influential or a ‘garib’ to cause the mess and get out of it with no blame.

Above views are my personal opinions and based on my personal experiences. Not everyone will agree on those, but this is an open and unbiased forum and everyone is entitled to have and express their own opinion. Some of you who had similar experiences in past might agree with me. Others who don’t, I happily agree to disagree with them.

Thats how it is in India.

Thats way I say, run from the scene, but run to the police station and lodge a complaint against the other party.

Law is, one who lodges an FIR first, gets the case