Memoir 4: Only in India...

(Overcrowded Auto - picture courtesy of The Hindu)

This week I have invited a fellow member of the Bangalore's Writer Club, Anima Nair, to share her experiences of the wonderful sights one will see on the streets of India...

I read an article in today’s paper this morning. It described how an Air India flight was crammed beyond the allowed passenger limit. Apparently three extra passengers were accommodated in the cockpit and the folding seats which the crew used during take-off and landing. I couldn’t help smiling at that – this could only happen in India!

I know it’s dangerous and no laughing matter but the sheer idiocy of the whole thing gets to me. After all, we’ve all seen sights that defy description regularly on the roads in any Indian city. In Bangalore I have seen auto-rickshaws carrying up to 15 school-children in varying stages of compression. Little arms and legs poke out from every opening including the rear flap. Bags are draped on a pole by the side of the driver. The autos list precariously and the children grow up to be world-class contortionists. The driver crams in so many kids simply in order to make a profit. But how do the parents allow this atrocity? Even walking the treacherous roads of Bangalore at the risk of being mowed down by irate motorists or washed away during a sudden downpour that engorges a non-existent drainage system might be preferable to travelling so dangerously in the death trap that is an overcrowded auto-rickshaw.

I have frequently seen families of five going on a two-wheeler. The father’s driving of course. In front is the eldest child of perhaps seven years or so. Behind father is sandwiched the two middle ones of five and three years and last comes mother with a little infant held to her side. I have even seen the mother miraculously managing to hold both baby and a cell phone to her husband’s ear while the scooter or bike navigates some of the most pothole ridden roads in the world! It makes me wonder if our most expendable resource is our children since their safety seems to be of no concern to parents or anyone else.

Another common sight is people spilling out of buses and even hanging on to the ladder at the back. The city governing body does need to provide more buses on the routes that are busier but the risk taken by a huge percentage of the populace in this insane manner everyday is unwarranted. Even sardines packed in a tin are better off – they, at least, don’t hang out of the damn tin!

So it wasn’t surprising to find that a lady had been accommodated in the cockpit while two others sat on the crew’s seats. I wonder when people will be allowed to stand and travel on flights while hanging on to straps. I have seen small children sitting in their parent’s laps and turning the steering wheel during drives through the city. This is not because they are poor or for lack of space – this is because their parents are arrogant enough and rich enough to feel that rules don’t apply and are sure that their offspring can drive right from birth. So probably the next article would be about someone being allowed to sit on the pilot’s lap for lack of space or perhaps a rude, stinking rich parent of a spoilt brat insisting that his child should be allowed to fly the plane because he wants to...as I said it can happen only in India.

Anima

Did you like this? You can view more of Anima's thoughts at http://animasmusings.blogspot.com

Something to rant about? Would you like to be a guest on Ravin's blog? You can contact him via email, twitter or phone.

Follow Ravin on Twitter - http://twitter.com/ravinsampat

Email Ravin - "sampat" dot "ravin" @ "gmail" dot "com"