Where to Look? Inside Us!

(in continuation to ‘Guns & Roses Part 2: Roses – Immobilized Khaki’) 

Mr Pravin Sheth, the eminent political analyst says, (Ahmedabad Mirror, 24 July 2008 ) nowadays people are much candid about their conduct and do not care about the behavioural ethics in public. Because of his deep insights in social issues, Mr Sheth relates two recent outrageous incidents, first is the violent consequences after protest against the death of two kids and the second is the display of currency bundles in the Lok Sabha. We know the roots and the extent of corruption and conspiracies are not easy to find. But the contemporary methods of ill-behaviour are ingenuous. So called ‘sadhaks’ of Asaram came out with weapons, got violent openly on roads and vandalized residents’ belongings. In Delhi, some MPs displayed bundles of currency notes in Lok Sabha during trust vote, not giving a single thought for dignity of the Parliament, dignity of the democracy! They colored India’s face black to the whole world and wrote a black day in Indian history. As I just previously mentioned, that I doubt if there’s any line to be crossed as I cannot even dream about worse things. But as the fact, we can see unimaginable things keep happening every other day.

More or less, we all behave analogously, be it in private or public. At times, we do not care the expressions we send across are very harmful and unfavorable to many. If we look at the example of the cyclist (Part 2: Roses – Immobilized Khaki) who did not hang back before insulting the traffic officer, did not think whether he’s in fault or not and rashly started abusing and threatening in public. Being candid would also involve that one wouldn’t even be bothered for his own decorum being grounded. Swearing, shouting, making filthy comments and gestures to women, offending others in public, bullying the weak – all these are everyday and everywhere. The vision has to be changed from eyes and to be reached to the mind. We must start looking inside ourselves. We have to start seeing others equally and understand the importance of their existence too. I am resisting the notion of ‘Kaliyug’ as I didn’t much believed in. We don’t have to act accordingly either to prove the commencement of ‘Kaliyug’. Let us preserve ourselves as humans (‘Manav’) and re-establish an undivided and complete ‘Manav Yug’.

 

Related Articles:
Guns & Roses – Part 1: Guns – Memo No. 1!
Guns & Roses – Part 2: Roses for Immobilized Khaki

Guns & Roses – Part 2

Roses – Immobilized Khaki

 

‘Thola’ or ‘Kaka’ – that’s what we call our traffic police officers. ‘White & Khaki’ has never been respected enough in our society. We lie, we bribe, we misuse political connections, we use names, we flee, we run away but we DO NOT obey! Exceeding traffic, increasing number of cars and also two wheelers and parking chaos are making each day tougher than the previous for the traffic department. How can we ignore the dug roads, blocked junctions, diversions and many other repair and construction work going on in city? It is becoming excruciating because these works have altered traffic patterns at many places in city since long and have not been restored to normal. It’s a nightmare! Managing these cattle on wheels is not at all an easy job anymore. There are noise, smoke, crowd and rushing vehicles from everywhere.

 

In such a situation, we are only obliged to cooperate with the self discipline as much as we can. We have to start from somewhere. The following incident is a usual one of many, which shows how stubborn and indiscipline we are! (“I insist on using ‘We’ as we all are a part of it, one way or the other. Using ‘You’ would have excluded me!”)

 

A cyclist is already standing 10 feet further from the stopping line in an evening rush hour. (“I doubt if there’s any line we, humans have left to cross be it morals, discipline, corruption, violence, conspiracies and so on.”) An irritated traffic officer, shouted at the cyclist to go back and not to move further. That obstinate cyclist shouted back and was not willing to go back by an inch. Another officer got angry seeing the rider being hostile! The officer acted furiously to send the cyclist back and tried to deflate cycle’s tyre. The rider then started abusing, took out his mobile phone and started threatening the officer that he would call someone to harm that officer in any way. They continued to shout at each other, but the rider neither moved back nor did he stop abusing. I had to move on, so I could not witness how the clash was ended. Although very little, it’s a very serious thing, that how the guardians of law on the roads are affronted and let down. They are vulnerable to verbal and physical assault too. Are they our enemies, aren’t they the part of our own society? Are they stopping us or fining us for any personal contention? It may be argued that they are corrupted and eat bribes! Only we are supplying our helping hand to encourage corruption. We do not want to pay the full amount of the penalty. Have we also thought of the reasons behind it? There must not be any reason to advocate any kind of corruption but the society is leading towards horrific inequalities and imbalance. Rich and poor are at the North Pole and the South Pole respectively. This is another burning and huge issue which cannot be accommodated within the current discussion.

 

 

Let’s be in our all senses, while driving or while behaving with cops or any other public entity. We are only isolating them more and more by not adhering to the norms and offering bribes to them. It was published few weeks before in a daily tabloid that traffic officers distributed roses to the drivers in Vadodara city for illustrating that ‘We all belong to the same society. Please cooperate.’ I would say who actually need to be retained and given ‘Roses’ are these traffic officers. Obeying rules and behaving in discipline will be more than roses to them!

 

Related Articles:
Guns & Roses – Part 1: Guns – Memo No. 1!
Guns & Roses – In Continuation: Where to Look? Inside Us!

Guns & Roses – Part 1

 

Guns – Memo No. 1

Wednesday, 16^th July: A pleasant morning and I am on my way to work. I had a repellent experience with one of the traffic officials. I made out my way from behind the Income-Tax underpass and approached to the Stadium five roads to head to C G Road. Seeing that the signal just hit red, I opted to take left and then ‘U’ turn for C G Road. No wrong side driving, No prohibition sign for U turn, No lane breaking – I just continued to my destination in a bit unconventional fashion. At the next junction, I had someone honking vigorously at my back. “Who’s this daft spoiling this pleasant morning ride?” I thought.

Honking is the religious right of each driver in Ahmedabad. As soon as the traffic signal goes green, a car which is 4^th in the queue will start honking as the drivers at the front are sleeping, as they enjoy not moving from the front. Again, it’s a matter of civilian discipline and this is not just lack, but absolute absence of patience. I believe we may not be able to adhere to the western protocol of not honking at all. In England, heads turn around if anyone listens to a little ‘pom pom’ from a driver. But we cannot stop using, because there are hundreds of sleep walkers on roads who need a wake up call even in a busiest traffic flow. But we can discipline our senses to resist our ringing thumbs. A good point triggered in between! But let me take you back to that honk at my back.

Suddenly, a white 180cc traffic horse appeared and nailed me to the corner. “License aapo, tame ‘U’ turn laine bhagya chho!” (Show me the license; you took ‘U’ turn to run away).

 

'U' turn

Taking you turn at the front-end of the divider is of course not allowed but going back to the rear end to take a ‘U’ turn could not be a punishable act. Under Motor Vehicle Act 119/177, changing the lane without indication or violation of yellow line is punishable. I don’t think I could be framed in any of these. Believing this, I argued a little, traffic cop started wasting minutes, took my license and went away to manage the traffic. He could understand I am on my way to work and getting late. Considering the responsibility to reach office on time, I forcibly accepted my act as sinful rather than just unconventional, which I still believe. I agreed to pay the fine and he started writing the memo. Here’s the memo, which I received from the cop.

 

 

 

 

Now, let’s see how he messed up with the memo!

Take a look at no. 1 in the memo. Initially when he made this memo and gave this to me, I found he did not mention the type of violation I made under the act 119,177. He just mentioned “under act 119,177” which is having 10 types of violations like breaking signal, stop line, one-way entry etc. This suggests, he did not want to mention the violation as he knew I could not be punished for a ‘U’ turn violation of traffic rules. I insisted on writing the type of the violation and he did write but it didn’t carbon copy in his book anyway.

No. 2, it was a bizarre feeling when I came to know what he mentioned as him name in the memo. I felt cheated seeing that he mentioned his name as “C. H. Sharma” in the memo and also signed as “C. H. Sharma”. His name plate clearly suggested his surname was Pandey. I cannot recall the initials but I perfectly remember the last name. So, there were more than one attempt to leave no evidence from which I can even appeal to prove that I did not break the law. Even now, I do not claim that I did not make any mistake but when I am having doubts I can even appeal for that as I cannot prove who actually made the memo.

As the matter of fact, we do not take such small things acutely. But the substance of integrity within many governing bodies is missing. One more encouraging reason for not arguing much to the cop was to consider him as one of the traffic men who have to face the hard sun for hours, who have to control menacing drivers, who are being abused verbally every now and then and who sometimes even get assaulted physically. All these reasons are good enough to have a little apathy towards them and an element of cooperation by abiding to the traffic rules reasonably if not completely. Let me also clear my prime intent for sharing this particular issue, that we should remain alert when we are cornered by traffic police. We should understand the act violation, confirm the amount of fine written at the back of the slip and we should always confirm the details being filled in such memos. ‘Guns’ is just a title and it only means that we keep our senses open while dealing with such individuals. “Jankari Janhit Me Jari!!!”

Related Articles:
Guns & Roses – Part 2: Roses for Immobilized Khaki
Guns & Roses – In Continuation: Where to Look? Inside Us!

“CIVIC SENSE”

Reading the article “Towing men and their double standards” in Sunday Times (2 Feb 2008), Getting more attention from citizens is needed this time. It is essential to penalize the violators and keep practicing the towing of vehicles, as that is the way we have in out country. The possible solutions from traffic department are already been addressed in ‘Draw the lines…’ (21 Jan, AM) But as personnel, what can we do, seems easier and implemental. “Why is it that I am the only one who is caught?” – A thought like a gunshot appears when your vehicle is taken away from amongst other
40, parked wrongly just besides. But have you ever thought that other 40 have parked inappropriately, why shouldn’t I park mine correctly? Can we be proud of being a citizen of a developed (so called ‘metro) city but having zero civic sense!? A lot to think about! Self discipline is the word. It wouldn’t be enough to get a uniformed, well structured traffic and parking system, until we start following simple discipline ourselves. Common sense or say civic sense comes before the law practice, as the latter is an imposition and the previous is a willing exercise.

Parking vehicles in a row, parking them straight and closer to the next vehicle, keep vehicle a little distance if the destination is already crowded, using main stand while parking your two wheelers, parking cars in sub streets rather than parking them on busy roads – these are very simple things that we can follow despite of having clear indications of parking zones. We can easily manage the space we have by keep it organized. Everything depends on a bit of thinking from you and me. Give it a thought before you do anything in public and it may bring a significant change over all.

Sneh Bhavsar | Ahmedabad 8 February 2008

‘Draw the lines and make people walk’

 The city traffic police department is smiling its way to the bank”, said Vipul Rajput in the Ahmedabad Mirror, 18 Jan. An important issue has been encountered when it’s needed the most. Traffic chaos is getting  obvious for the commercial capital. But traffic department is failing to protect the integrity of the parking laws and instead, the objective of the department has shifted; as they seem to be acting like a (money) collection agency. Traffic department rather looks happier appreciating the penalty fees as the revenue, claimed Vipul Rajput. It is turning to be a one more indecent way of generating revenue for the Government as they also sought the income by liberating the liquor prohibition. True, the indiscipline prevails among the city-men while driving or chucking their vehicles anywhere on the roads. People are least likely to look for a parking spot, especially for a quick stop. What is adding in their sloppy behavior is the least encouragement from the traffic department; there are a few clearly designated parking zones, but no shared education to follow the parking norms. If we review the department’s efforts, there has been an increased number of towing stations operating in the city. Moreover, consider the cost of the land hired or  possessed to place the towed vehicles, the expenses for hiring or buying towing vans, the cost of employing the workforce to lift the vehicles and paying from the ordinary clerk to the duty officers – for 12 functional towing stations. Additionally, towing vans are adding turmoil to the overcrowded traffic (bearing in mind the extensive digging and the BRTS deployment through the city) and leaving the commuters at the risk too, by making frequent trips as they are trying to reach their daily target of 5000 vehicles. These money and hard work could be utilized in educating people about the new protocols of parking, for example: you cannot park in front of public garden. How much of us know about it?

People are now getting furious over the haphazard abduction of their vehicles. The senior officer at Drive-In towing station kindly accepts the rage from the commuters. He added, ‘we have presented this situation to the traffic ACP Mr. N G Patel and the higher authorities, there isn’t a real implementation of parking zones.’ It is not about fingering someone but considering it as an issue which could be resolved by positive efforts. Traffic Department should designate the parking areas clearly on each road, near every shopping malls and cinemas, around public gardens and near the street markets too. In many cases people park their vehicles unknowingly. People could be advised and controlled over the parking mess in many ways, but the clear parking indications and uniform allocations would help us better to organize the space and preserve the laws. One doesn’t want to break the law intentionally but proper guidance will encourage them to keep in order. The line must be drawn somewhere, better if the traffic authorities draw some on the streets.

Sneh Bhavsar | Ahmedabad, 19 January 2008