Mood:
brightNow Playing: HOW EDUCATED INDIANS BEHAVE THE SAME WAY AS BIHARIS
Topic: OWN CONVENIENCE PARAMOUNT
In the past few weeks the lynching of robbers, rapists and assorted criminals in Bihar has made front page news. And predictably there have been middle-class outrage, severe editorials and a general sense of oh-Bihar-is-last-place-god-made exasperation. The middle-class love to point the forefinger at someone when we, all the while, know that the other three fingers are pointed towards us. I am shocked by this hollier-than-thou attitude. Let me first tell you some instances of how we highly-educated, highly-stylised, Americanised to the extent that we make sure to use the expletives we hear in Hollywood movies and who vacation in the developed world every year behave. We, the middle-class, deride India and its systems in favour of the clean and orderly West, almost as a refrain.
Let me tell you about Mumbaikars. About what happened last month when I bought my railway pass at the local railway station in Mumbai. I stood in the long queue for my turn to buy the quarterly pass with a lot of time at my disposal as I had started from home early. In Mumbai local train stations the railways have made provision for a separate queue for commuters who want to buy first class tickets at the second class counters. That day as usually seen a commuter walked straight to the counter to get a first class pass as he is entitled to. It shouldn't surprise anyone that there was a murmur of protest as the first class commuter's show of 'imbecility'.
But I was shocked to see the person behind me call out to the first class passenger and give him choicest abuses for seeking his privilege of buying a pass without standing in the second class queue. In the melee I joined the ruckus. As I was also buying a first class pass, though I was standing in the second class queue because I had ample time at hand, I supported the first class commuter much to the dismay of the second class commuters. There was not one among the second class passengers who wanted to follow the regulation. Even though every one of them could read the board put up at the counter which specified a separate queue for first class ticket buyers none believed in following rules. That as I have stated in my earlier blogs, does not behove us Indians to follow rules and conventions. Breaking rules is fashionable, macho and smart. go-getting Indians don't believe in niceties of following traffic signal, keeping to the lane or using pedestrian crossings, or even foot-over bridge for that matter. Only feminine (chutiyas, as we in Mumbai call them) follow such conventions. Also, we Indians have started to think that our own convenience is paramount, and others be bulldozed over. Our insistence and as often seen our visible pride over our great culture of treating people around you with affection and respect has remained good Hindu literature. The westerners without any such baggage of culture and heritage behave exceedingly courteous and accommodating in public. Often you find that westerners are good to a fault. When you are in any western country you can be sure that people would show such 'smart' behaviour. This leads to an obvious situation. Your guards are always down when in public. And that remarkably leads to lesser stress and aggression.
Standing in the queue, fighting for the first class passengers' rights I realised how we in Mumbai are very close descendants of Biharis. This is the mobocracy in our Mumbai. Though I have not been witness to any first class passenger being beaten up by second class commuters, from my earlier experience of being manhandled by passengers in first class compartment for boarding a Karjat fast local (read my earlier blog) I am sure that must be the order of the day.
The fact is that if Biharis are so barbaric we in Mumbai are no different as we all belong to the same breed. It is only that we or our earlier generation have migrated to Mumbai for better jobs. A few years ago Shiv Sainiks beat up Bihari boys at Kalyan station when they came to take the railway exams for jobs, and even the press supported the Sena's cause. When Biharis lynched robbers the Times of India front page report brazenly sympathised with the mob, justifying their cause saying that the lack of law and order breakdown led to such vigilante action! Wow!
The same day the Times of India carried a Mumbai city story of a pedestrian man-handled by robbers inside the public latrine just outside Churchgate station. When the victim freed himself and ran out of the loo the robbers chased him through the streets shouting "thief, thief". The people around, as usually seen in Mumbai, also joined the chase. The victim knew a MLA staying in the quarters on Madame Cama Road and made towards that binglow and in nick of time reached there before the huge mob behind his heels could lynch him. Only when the MLA friend intervened along with his security men the mob dispersed. Just think of it, what if it had happened to any of us who don't have high connections. We would have been not only wronged but we would have to pay for it by our dear life. So much for a mob's instant justice, which the media is extolling as people's justice. Very leftist, very socialist.
If the law and order machinery has fallen apart do we citizens want a professional force to take over. We want all kinds of reservations in the name of secularism, reiligion, caste and most importantly, language as seen in Mumbai, the most happening city in the country.
Second, in case of long queues which irritate and inconvenience commuters badly, do we citizens ask for privatising railways? Just think of the change that private and foreign players have brought in telecom and banking sector. Do we wait in the queue for telephones or for banking transactions any more. I remember in the 80s and early 90s going to the bank was a full day's job. See how much we in the middle class hate privatisation of inefficient PSUs. (read this: http://
in.news.yahoo.com/070920/48/6l0x7.html )
