Bangalore 22nd April 2009
It’s been 2 weeks now that I am in this god forsaken city. And by stroke of good luck, my company has chosen to cut costs by not providing transport facility to its employees. This means, every day brings with it an all new lesson, an all new experience for me while travelling through those city buses plying on the streets of the silicon valley of India.
It was 7 PM, Rush Hour, when I boarded this bus with a dozen other people in front of my office. Two weeks of travelling by city buses has made me oblivious to who I am standing with and who is my co-passenger. This day was a little different because for the first time I found some space to sit in the bus. I hate crowds. So I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep in my place.
Suddenly a tiny dark-skinned hand rested on my knee. I opened my eyes to find a little boy of 4-5 years staring at me with a sweet smile. His other hand was tightly held by his father, a tall lanky man in his late 20s.
Kids have a different language of their own. Somehow they come to know who is a nice guy and who is dangerous. And while travelling on those buses looking at a thousand faces every day, I believe that he might have developed a strong sense of judging people by their face. He knew I was harmless as long as my eyes were closed. The minute I opened them, he might have gotten a different story. He immediately hid himself behind his dad to not come close to me for the rest of the journey.
Minutes passed and our stop came. It’s crazy out here in Bangalore. If you can get down in time, it’s good. If you can’t, well, pray to god. If you are all alone, it will be slightly easy for you to thread your way out of a bus. If you have a kid to hold with one hand, it is 20 times as tough. Chances are, you might skip a step and slip on the road on your face. And while falling, a father can never let anything happen to his kid. With all his mind and might, he protects his kid, even if it means a broken nose for himself. And brave kids don’t cry. They help the aliens in supporting their father to stand up and take him to the hospital for a plaster. It’s a different matter that the rest of the world moves on. The bus door gets closed automatically, and the driver starts the vehicle. From the closed door you can listen to the howl of the conductor for ‘tickets!’ the crowd keeps hunting for some bus while the traffic maintains its flow.
Had it been America’s Silicon Valley, lawsuits would have been filed, cases would have been fought, and the owners of the bus might have had to pay a compensation for making 10 times the allowed capacity to board the bus. In India it’s different. Life is in cheap supply here. You shrug and move on.
Tomorrow, news channels will flash some god forsaken leader making a thousand promises of a strong government and undaunted leader as Bangalore goes to vote, oblivious to the strength that flows through the streets of this country in their thousands every day. Meet the 4 year old boy in Bangalore bus, Mr Politician. You will see raw courage. And it cares a rat’s ass for you and your promises. For him, life is still the game of survival. And he is living it all right.
6 comments:
Great thoughts Mr. Sinha! And you are very right in what you have written. This purported 'courage' is found on the streets of real Indian footpaths and not 'just' in the wide roads of Lutyens Delhi. Yes, the loh purush of India is totally oblivious to what the young kid in the bus goes through everyday, in just the same way he also doesn't give a 'rat's ass' to what Mr. Advani has to promise. Yes India moves on, yes all of us say - that's the 'courage of Indians'...
But do you really think this is 'courage', and not a cowardly and helpless behaviour? Something that has got to do with the selfishness of us Indians. Something that prevents bystanders to slap a guy passing lewd comments on girls. Something that prevents Mumbaikers to halt the entire local train system till the government can get the money stuffed in Swiss banks to purchase some Hi-tech X-Ray machines for the railway stations? Something that prevents an accident victim to sue the authorities (as you mentioned is done in the USA)?
Well I know this behavior is not because of one's own wish. It can never be, for we all know this is wrong and needs to be changed. And I know we would change given the chance and support to change.
But who is going to give us this support? Someone has to take the right step, and people are willing to do that. But more importantly that someone must find others walking behind in the same footsteps, if not as leaders but atleast as right followers.... Otherwise you will never find a Meera Sanyal in the well of the Indian Parliament....
I hope sometime down the line when you are writing one of these posts, you would be able to narrate incidents of all such people! And that would be the day when we would start giving our leaders "a rat's ass"....
Rightly said!
You can't think of changing the system by going out of it. Its the people who make the system and its the people who maintain it. For better or for worse.
Its a different matter that they do not have the capacity or the resources to change it. 3 Lakh people will fight it out for an MBA degree. 10000, more or less equally good, will get close to it. Some 2000 will get an admission to a decent institute. Still each one of them will give their life's energy for it. Nobody can bring about a change for it to be a fairer system. But we give a rat's ass and do what we can do best. Be Strong!
We cannot increase the number of buses plying on the roads of Bangalore, we cannot increase the capacity of roads to hold that traffic... all we can do is, with every morning pray for our safety on those deadly roads and do what the thousands others do in this country. Adjust.
Yes we can vote for Meera Sanyal, Captain Gopinath, Shashi Tharoor and so on. In hopes of them doing something for all of this to change. And in that, give our little bit to improve things in this country. But will those 100 hawks make it big in the huge quicksand that the indian system has become. Remians to be seen. Till then... well wont repeat the expression again.
Thanks for your comment!
Ossum write-up Puti... You are maturing as a writer. Your thoughts and outlook has matured and enriched exponentially. Keep the ink flowing.. oops the keys clicking...
~Bhabhi
You were writing in 2006 I didn't know ;) but good work ... it seems you were lost in your work-zone for quite a while but you still keeping up ... keep it up dude ;) all d best :)
Ahh! Banga--lore. or 4 tat matter ny big city, life is cheapest commodity, emotions cheaper. There r times wen a citizen stands out n cries out loud for her rites but still of no use.. shortly the crowds wud back out n u ll b alone in ur fight...hate to say this but of all the countries I ve been to india was the only place where I was the 2nd grade citizen!!!???
Well said Pooja Bhabhi....
"of all the countries I ve been to india was the only place where I was the 2nd grade citizen!!"
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