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Lack of Civic Sense has been a topic that’s been argued, debated on in India with no results, as most Indians do not care for civic sense, people today are so driven towards their personal goals that civic sense takes a back seat and is a nuisance and bother.
Many believe that civic sense is just about keeping our roads, neighborhood, public property etc, clean and neat but it’s more than that…it has to do with law abiding, respect for fellowmen and maintaining decorum in public places. A total disregard and lack of civic sense comes from separatism, vandalism, intolerance, road rage etc, people are becoming less and less tolerant of each other, of other cultures, backgrounds etc and have no consideration of fellow city dwellers.
Passing by a bus, car one is not sure that one will be safe from spitting flying from a moving bus, packets and bottles being thrown by a moving car, and sometimes food being littered on the roads, the stench and garbage lying unattended for days together leading to diseases like Dengue, Typhoid, Jaundice etc.
Everywhere you go, you are witness to spit marks, urine marks, vulgar graffiti’s, monuments and building being scribbled on, marble stones broken and names scribbled on. These can be seen at every nook and corner of India today and no city till day has managed to fight this menace. Roads lie dirty not because no one has cleaned it…but because someone has dirtied it in the first place.
The term “everybody does it so why blame me” is an excuse, it’s difficult for a country to change its mindset when its leaders are setting bad examples round the clock.
So let’s face it: there is no denying that we Indians lack the basic civic sense whether it is our roads, bus stops, railway stations, ticket queues, public places etc….I have seen so called educated Indians travelling in their BMW’s throwing out plastic bottles, paper cups , chip packets on the roads and when I stopped them and corrected them …they said” Mind your own business” The littering of garbage and dirtying of places is more nowadays with public engraving their names with hearts on monuments….disgracing the Ajanta & Ellora Caves, Tombs and religious places showing a clear lack of decency and morality.
Lack of civic sense is not far to seek, we find it all pervading no matter where we go, be it our own home, our neighborhood colony roads, office, theatres, restaurants everywhere we go we see disgusting signs of uncivility. The very fact that even with garbage bins being put up at public places by the government we tend to litter the roads…. setting up of urinals is of no use as we Indians like to defecate in the open…. throwing garbage in the open is our right…. dirtying and damaging our monuments is our birthright and no one can stop us…. that’s the attitude…” Kya Kar Lega”.
The reasons for all this are that we have never been taught to treat things that belong to us and others nicely, kindly and well. We never educate our kids to treat neighborhood, society, public property as something meant to be kept clean and neat…hence it’s no wonder that our parks are littered with leftovers…cinema halls are left untidy and messy and we contribute filth wherever we can.
We clean our homes and throw our garbage in front of our neighbors’ house, we eat sweets, chocolates, chips and throw the wrapper on the roads, rivers, etc. Many a times bottles are thrown from speeding cars without realizing that it can cause injury to passer byes.
All this shows us how civic & polished our creamy layer of society is. We will never dream of doing the same to the interiors of our homes then why this indifference to public property…because we have become more and more selfish and self –centered…we want everything but cannot contribute to the maintenance to anything.
In this the most tragic fact is that we are at no stage of life taught to respect other people’s property or public property. We must make destroying and vandalizing public property a punishable offence.
In the end without civic morality…. communities perish…It’s time we got our acts together and truly changed our habits and ways of life…It’s the small things that make a big difference…We refuse to learn and do anything positive yet claim we are proud Indiana. When we should be ashamed that we can’t keep our country, cities, towns and villages clean…It’s all in the mind….and to make a difference we have to look into our own conscience before blaming or pointing a finger at our neighbor……Clean up our dirty filthy minds first before cleaning the nation.
To foster a sense of community and responsibility, we must also consider the role of civic volunteers who assist in maintaining public order and safety. Their contributions highlight the importance of civic engagement in our daily lives.
Lack of Traffic and Road Sense
The famous quote of the Australian Traffic Rules of 1938…. rings my ears today” Road sense is the off-spring of courtesy and the parent of safety” …. I couldn’t agree more in today’s context at the complete lack and ignorance of road sense in Indian roads today when it comes to the number of accidents and fatalities and injuries, we see in road accidents today. There are many reasons for this ignorance, mainly being drastic increase in population and thereby increase in vehicles be in cars, bikes etc…. a family consisting of say 5 members where each and every member has their own vehicle…other reasons being increase in highly dense traffic, illiteracy, living life on the fast lanes, exposure to movies where speed thrills etc. There are no traffic rules in India at least most of the times, and where there are they are meant to be broken & disobeyed.
I would blame it entirely on the lack of traffic and road sense, we do not have any courtesy, empathy for our fellow travelers everyone is in a rat race and wants to reach first regardless of the others, no consideration at all for fellow drivers, pedestrians, vehicles plying on the road and we never ever obey rules…somehow, we get a sadistic thrill on breaking traffic rules and when stopped by policemen we love to bribe them and get away easily with a warning which is never listened.
We are all “Idiots” wandering on the road with a license to kill or get killed. It’s not just drunken or reckless driving but display of destructive mannerisms on the road habits which we all encounter daily when we commute to our workplaces, marketplaces, homes etc.
Right from the moment we take our car from the parking lot of our homes, offices we encounter chaos. Start reversing your vehicle from the parking lot and some idiot who is some distance away will suddenly rush forward without any warning at full speed, honking loudly, trying to squeeze his vehicle past ours just to get ahead of you.
You are waiting at the traffic signal with your car on the extreme right next to the divider keeping a safe distance from the vehicles in front of you and suddenly find a bike pushing his way through the gap in the divider and parking in front of you all this to ensure he is the first to go when the signal turns green….no patience in waiting but breaking the rule is their right. Same scene holds true at malls, tolls plazas, office parking all this effort just to get that extra edge over you and be the winner.
Zebra crossings have today become a decorative piece which are painted regularly but are of no use as many Indians don’t even know the meaning and use of it. Don’t expect anyone to stop and let you cross the road…there is no such thing as road etiquettes in India and Indians yes, they love honking and over-taking regardless of the consequences.
Inside the city, no matter what’s the speed of your car on an open stretch, some pedestrian will see himself as the next Usain Bolt and cross the road ahead of you unmindful of the fact that with the speed you are driving your car can actually gatecrash into him.
We are a breed of humans who just love not using the pedestrian crossing but love to run, dodge in between cars irrespective of the speed and timing. These are in fact not idiots but “Leaders” because they don’t follow anything or anyone and the masses follow them blindly. These idiots are usually found on highways where trailers, tractors, dumpers, bikes and bicycles ply on the wrong side of the road. If there is a “U Turn” nearby say just 200 meters on the opposite side then it makes perfect sense to them and is justified and you can never argue with them.
One has to be always wary of these idiots as their antics can lead to fatal or near fatal consequences either for them, you or your vehicle. I have seen frequent episodes of driving on the fast lane and at some point, suddenly the front tires of some stupid biker magically appearing in front of the car from a small gap in the divider of the road.
These idiots just love to be the centre of attraction and attention be it on the road, no matter which vehicle they are driving, you will always be left guessing which lane they eventually going to pick, to add salt to your injury, these idiots will always drive slower than expected speed of the lane, your persistent honks wouldn’t budge them and they prefer and love to live on the edge.
No one wants to wait and let the other person ahead go first …they all want to rush in and be first to reach their destination regardless of the chaos they leave behind …that’s the sad but true reality of our traffic sense in India where rules, fines and warning go unheard and unseen. These events sometimes lead to a heart in the mouth moment as they miss the side on collision by a whisker.
Bikes and bicycles on busy city roads are a deadly combination, fast and weirdly changing movements will the likes of Micheal Jackson and Prabhudeva to shame. Out rear-view mirrors are non-existent, giving signal while slowing down or at turns are not meant for them and they eventually fall prey to heads on collision with the incoming traffic.
All said and done as someone rightly said “Your safety gears are between your ears. If you don’t think it’s safe it’s probably isn’t…. the safest risk is the one we didn’t take and roads are absolutely no place to be adventurous. Every time you go out on the roads you have to keep your eyes, ears open and be ready to face some idiot who is hell bent on crashing into you for the sake of getting ahead…The saying “Speed Thrills but Kills is unheard of in India…. Remember, “Anyone driving slower than you is an Idiot & anyone going faster than you is a Maniac”
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.