HOW TO IMPROVE AS A RACE WITH THE EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

HOW TO IMPROVE AS A RACE WITH THE EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE

“I have miles to go before I sleep,

I have miles to go before I sleep”

                                  Robert Frost    

Most of us say in our country that we need to improve like the west… that we need to become honest and not remain corrupt in various departments. Some would respond to this with ‘this will take years’. Some say ‘never’.

I wish to introspect and see how we can improve with whatever limited sources we have, to enable us to become a better society.

I am not for a moment saying that the advanced societies are better than us in every way. What I mean is we need to learn the good things from other country systems and follow them to improve our ways. We have no reason to hero worship anyone because we are already a diverse, ancient culture with most things to be proud of and have survived centuries of history.

My last month holiday in US was an eye opener. I have worked abroad for many years, but never spent 30 days as holidays. My wife and I looked around 6 states there and hence I have a bird’s view of how different we are from them. I have outlined the top 10 things which we can improve.

1.       Toilets

2.       Public Littering

3.       Courtesy to other humans

4.       Parking on the road

5.       Driving on the road

6.       Minding your own business

7.       Emergency services response by officials

8.       Museums and preservation of history/ ancestry

9.       Treating the prince and the pauper alike

10.   Learning from children

1.       Toilets:

Since the recent years, the number of toilets in India, especially in the north has tremendously increased. What do this mean to the man or a tourist on the road?     

         

One sees people urinating on the road (even this morning on the main road at 6 am) every day.

When we took the guided tour through New York City (NYC) our articulate guide Jimmy said that in NYC “Law in New York states that all hotel restrooms have to be made available to members of the public if they want to use them.”

In the Times Square, I tested the theory by walking into Sheraton Hotel and asking the receptionist for direction to the rest room who cheerfully directed me to it.

If only we can do this in all the cities in India, a man on the road who wants to piddle can use the toilet close by. My neighbourhood has at least 4 restaurants in the distance of about 50 meters; so that man this morning could have used any of these!

The government need not spend any extra amount of money in building good public toilets for the travelers.

2.       Public Littering :

Civic sense is what we need. Civic sense is but social ethics. It is consideration by the people for the unspoken norms of society. A lot of people assume that civic sense is just about keeping the roads, streets and public property clean. The least we can do is at least follow this path!

The news in papers and televisions are about hero worshipping matinee idols/ sports stars/ people in public life. If only the media moguls can support the public by releasing videos of how we should not throw plastic bags, bottles, papers, etc in public by the so called ‘heroes’.

Using the TV media and public hoardings, we need to create the awareness that the public places should be kept as clean as home. If we can rope in these ‘heroes’ in the advertisements, it will not only catch the public eye,  improve the public education , but also build up the ego of these chaps!

People need to collect the rubbish from homes and dump it in the dumpsters kept by the road side. Most houses are already doing this on a daily basis. But the man on the road tends to throw the bags and papers around and this should be curbed.

All the public display areas like museums, parks in the west are spotless (well, almost!) as folks collect all their stuff in a bag when done and take them home to dispense.

The westerners have gone on further to split their waste into two bags, recyclable and non-recyclable. If this is not done, their bags are not collected by the municipality and left outside their house. We will need to get this done as a later step.

3.       Courtesy to other humans:

Westerners tend to say, “Hello, how are you today, howdy” to strangers in malls, in the airports very easily and smile at you.

Naturally this is regional. You cannot expect a man in NYC or East Coast to be nice to you. I guess that a man in Mumbai or Delhi may not be civil to a stranger like you given the busy nature of his work, and the speed of life. But on an average, the Indians do not do this. We tend not to smile at strangers.

This morning I smiled at a random stranger on the road and nodded and he returned it! So if we initiate something courteous first, the others will follow.

Same as holding the door open for someone.

We need to be courteous to foreign nationals too. They are here only for a short while. Any kind act (like direction to a place/ restaurant) will always be remembered by them. After all, by doing so, you are improving the image of 1.311 billion Indians.

4.       Parking on the road:

I have touched upon parking as this is simpler than driving.

We need to park our two and four wheelers in consideration to other people who are parking around us.

If there is space for two vehicles, I have seen guys pulling up in centre- never understood why.

I have seen police and VIP cars in parked in restricted areas ( no parking zone – obstructing pedestrians’ path)  in movie theaters late at night. Again why does the public official coming for a late night movie use the restricted pedestrians’ path for parking? We should actively encourage our public and our public servants to use sense in parking.  

5.       Driving on the road: 

I have seen so many advertisements in movies for beverages, toiletries, food, etc on the TV.

If only we can slow some slides ( during the commercial breaks) about driving on the left of the road, the lane discipline (drive in the left lane, use middle for overtaking and the right for turning to right), precautions prior to overtaking another vehicle ( look in the rear view mirror, right signal, look over the right shoulder, step up to right, check road ahead, overtake reasonably rapidly, check rear view mirror, signal left and after leaving a safe distance shift to left land, cut out your left signal and slow down).

Over speeding is something only strict enforcement can control. But we can try incorporating slides in the TVs about the speed limits.

6.       Minding your own business:

”An idle mind is the devil’s workshop”

I have almost never seen any westerner loitering on the road with nothing to do and watching the road.

Life is short! I wouldn’t like to spend the rest my life looking at what each stranger on the road is doing!

7.       Emergency services response by officials

London police responded in 8 minutes in the busy central London a few days ago to a terrorism call . This is characteristic of an advanced society.

If there is fire call, or a call to the police, emergency time of response should be a measure of response.

This we need to inculcate in our culture. We should not be happy that they arrived, but how quickly they responded and how efficiently they controlled the situation.

8.       Museums and preservation of history/ ancestry

Museums of art, museums of music, museums of Indian American culture, museums of space, and what not – are a noticeable factor of the west. The places are well kept, videos displaying the events. Live people ( paid actors/ unpaid volunteers) act out in old uniforms how people lived in the society in the past! These are place like a drama during day time every day so that  school children are brought to these museums to learn history!

We are one of the most ancient societies of the world! We need to look at our own museums, how well kept they are – there is no need for me to say anything more. All I know is I come from a great, ancient culture and I am proud of it. But how am I going to show it to the children, tourists and the future generations?

9.       Treating the prince and the pauper alike:

This is where we grossly differ as a third world.

We know how we give preferential treatment to our affluent society members, how the VIPs put in a word for their relative , etc. Even in immigration queues, the foreign Indians coming into India, who all their lives have been standing in queues abroad for buses, shops, post offices, rest rooms, etc…. suddenly jump the queue in front of others, swarm around and obscure the queue.

This culture is in-built in us and we need to break this habit. We need patience, learn to take a deep breath and wait our turn. But we can only do this, if the system is fair and just.

For instance, an American surgeon told me, there was one donor liver for transplant. Waiting for the liver were a homeless person (term for a very poor man on the road) and a minister in the government. The donor liver was transplanted to the homeless person as he was ahead of the minister in the list in the government hospital.

We know this involves educated people (doctors, hospital administrators), government officials. But justice and system prevailed and the minister had to wait for his liver in the west.

When we do this freely on our own volition and the system allows this (system is only us – the humans!), we are a civilized nation.

When we care for the handicapped, weak, poor and the minorities – and not marginalize them, then we are an advanced and civilized nation.

10.   Learning from children:

This is philosophical – I have an infant grandson who is teaching me a lot of new things in life.

From him, I have learnt –

·         Always to be happy,

·         Always to be doing something or other,

·         Never to give up in doing things which you really love in life,

·         Demand loudly whatever you want for not worrying about consequences &

·         Forgive & forget easily (life is too short to be bitter! )

I know that children consider all humans to be equal. As they grow up, they learn from parents and the society that all humans are not equal – this is something we need to correct! The fault is in the humans and the system. We can still do this!

Do one good act to a stranger every day, without expecting anything in return and we will be a better society!

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