Blog@GraceJunction

Five new-age trains recently introduced by the Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation (MRVC) to make travel more comfortable for the city’s harassed train commuters have been vandalised and defaced by miscreant commuters. These trains were a part of the World Bank-funded Mumbai Urban Transport Project worth Rs 4,500 crore.

Here’s what “uncaring” Mumbaikars have done to the trains:

• The shiny silver-purple paint on the trains’ exterior has been covered with red stains as passengers have been spitting paan and mawa all over them. The area below windows and doors now looks like a toilet wall.

• Instead of painting instructions and details of class on compartments, MRVC had pasted imported stickers marking the compartments for women, luggage and handicapped passengers. These stickers had reflective characters so that commuters would be able to see them even with low lights at platforms. These stickers have been torn by commuters, and the instructions are now difficult to read.

• Compartment interiors have been covered in graffiti and unauthorised advertisement stickers. The maintenance staff at railway yards keep clearing these ads, but when they’re taken off, they still leave black stains of adhesive behind.

• The new train boasted of facilities like stations announcements through speakers and indicators, but speakers in a few compartments have already been stolen, leaving gapes holes in the walls and wires hanging loose.

• Railways had, for the first time, got rid of the traditional black switches for fans and had used stylish modular switches instead. Commuters at a few places have tried to steal them and in some places, having been unable to pull them out completely, have spoilt the walls and left the switches hanging.

• Locks fitted on doors and rubber fittings have been pulled out by passengers hanging by the door during rush hour.

So much for modernisation of public utilities! It will take many many many years to come any where near the standard of living that people in many prosperous nations of the world enjoy not because India doesn’t have the will power or the money power to do it. The main reason is the sheer size of its population. Improvement of living conditions is not just about utilities and facilities and goods, it also about people and their attitudes and behavior. India is poised or poisoned!

On my visits abroad, I have only realised, we in India live like d*gs. We adjust to and endure dirt and filth, lengthy queues, overcrowded trains and corruption, unrepaired digged up for months roads, partial cops and biased authorities and a ever delaying judicial system, a life where the rich and powerful get away while innocent are crushed and no one speaks etc etc etc. India needs a basic change in its core values! We still are so primitive in that area.

Coming back to the vandalism, what would be the possible reasons for such things?

• Stuff that apparently has no owner (public domain) fall in “do anything with it” category and if anyone does anything with it, no one dares ask. If anyone does dare, he has had it. There is no regard shown for the apparently owner-less property, rather only contempt. Blatant spitting, tearing of stickersm, graffitti on walls….what else does it show!!

• Spitting or pulling stickers or pulling out rubber fittings or locks is also done just for the heck of it. It’s plain fun to destroy something that is not yours especially if there is no one to ask.

• Utter disparity in the incomes and status of people is one trigger. Poverty is one of the reasons that would make people steal speakers or switches! There is a temptation to make easy money by selling off these stuff!

• Sometimes these things are done in the sight of one and all, to show how fearless they are, and that they are the people in charge! Pure show-off of bruteness!

There could be many more underlying reasons.

But at the core of it is, rebellion. A rebellion that’s perhaps not just against a government authority or not just expressed on public amneties, but a rebellion that is more basic. A rebellion so ingrained that it’s impact is spread across every aspect of life. It can be seen in the thoughts, in the words, in the deeds, in the attitude, in the character, in the intentions, in the plans, in the aspirations, in the world view! A rebellion, that can be explained only by our core values.

Our core values are vandalised and what is seen on the outside is just a projection, expression and extrapolation of the inside reality.

So there is perhaps a need to address the value system at the core. A dichotomy there, an open ended definition of destiny and an unclear understanding of life and its purpose is what makes people behave as they do. There are enough and many loopholes for cover ups and escapes in the cultural values and core beliefs, and so anything and everything is okay!

We need an understanding of life where we are answerable to an authority. It’s not just about suffering the punishment, it’s also about standing up and answering to someone. I think, its not that people don’t know about the punishment or are doing things due to lack on enforcement, they simply do not know the authority.

Let me explain this more:
I did naughty things in my school days just for the heck of it, not because I didn’t know that there was no punishment, but because, I thought, when it comes to that, I will see it then. Then one day I was standing before our Principal. I was not afraid of the punishment, nor did i feel unjustified, because I knew I deserved it. But when I met him, and somewhat got an understanding about this man, I stopped acting like a fool. Not because I was afraid of the punishment, which however the gracious Principal didn’t proclaim on me, but because I respected this man now and whatever he was doing. My core value and understanding got a reshuffle and refinement!

Indian value system is very impersonal and faceless. There are characters that do appear in the mix, but they are more of guideposts and genies, more like ‘helplines’ of Kaun Banega Crorepati or ‘health potions’ in video games ! We need to rise up to this reality sooner than later, before this nation is vandalised by its own people!

Doomsday prediction!!! Nope. Just keep reading the papers, and this blog and you will see the pixel level changes that are surely changing not just the color but even the large image too!! For now I can only say India is Poised and Poisoned!

Tags: , india poised, indian culture, indian value system, mrvc, mumbai local trains, vandalized

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 11:20 am and is filed under Articles, Geo, Purpose of Life, Society, Spiritual. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.