At home on the 4th of July........almost

Teju and I went to the 4^th of July Boston fireworks display. It was a lovely night with great weather, a good dinner at the Cheesecake factory and some amazing fireworks as apparent from the videos below. But that’s not the purpose of this blog.

That day, Mass Ave in Boston was packed with people. As we walked towards it, we saw trash cans overflowing and a generic lack of order and thought, “This is what happens in any place with a lot of people. Its not our fault that CST or Kurla station is not clean……. Its just impossible to manage”. We got a nice spot to watch the fireworks thanks to a couple who were bored of it and walked off, presumably to the loo. When we started back, there was a sea of people, a lot more than when we reached there. A lady was shouting out loud from a platform, searching for her kids. People were walking down Mass ave ignoring the cars and the cops. There was, in a way nothing anyone could do. Human nature was taking its own course, or so we thought. Lots of people were amazed and taking videos (and so did we) but to us, this was an evening at Kurla station. We, felt at home.

We walked on to our car, using all our garnered skills to reach there in record time. And that’s when the difference struck us. We reached from the parking lot to the interstate in under 20 minutes. A big achievement. There were no traffic snarls. No people trying to cut lanes to get there faster. No disorder in traffic except Stop signs being ignored, but I guess that was acceptable then.

We realized that there was discipline in the whole system. Maybe, it was there since this was a one off incidence. Maybe people will lose it if it becomes a daily occurance. Maybe, it is because America has a car culture and we do not. But then, maybe, just maybe, it’s a discipline they have and we lack. And this is the maybe we need to focus on to improve.

There are difficulties and some things cannot be changed but disciplined traffic moves a lot faster. Quite often, cutting lanes, going straight from the right only lane or creeping before a signal changes helps the ones doing it but then it hampers the pace of others.

As I think back, I realize that though the trash cans were full and overflowing, most of the trash was next to the cans. I am sure all of that would be gone by the 5^th of July. The first thought in many minds on reading this would be ………damn the BMC (or your local body). The one that should come to mind is damn us. We are the ones polluting the area and making it difficult for the cleaning staff to do their job.

The problem is seeped into our culture and is location specific. I have seen tons of people who will walk for a mile to find a trash can when abroad but not a couple hundred metres when back in India. Does that mean that we as a nation are followers? If everyone throws trash on the roads lets do it as well…………if everyone pays money to get stuff done, lets do it as well. If that is the case, dear educated people, let’s lead the way. Let us change the habits of the country. If we lead, others will follow.

Always throw trash in bins. Think of the rest of the traffic before cutting someone or taking a left from the rightmost lane. Tell the next person you see littering to not do so. I do it all the time. They may smirk or laugh at you behind your back but if one in 100 is changed, we have one more leader.

I realize that I have diverted a lot from the topic but there is one more random thought that I can link to this post. The time has come for us to give good news stories to 24 hour channels. Let us provide them with stories of people fighting corruption, cleaning up the neighbourhood and solving water problems because they seem inept at finding these. In a month in India, I saw stories (oops sorry the story of) Aarushi Talwar from the viewpoint of everyone form her father to the cockroach in chief of the household atleast 25 times. Is this news? I found out a lot of stuff about what is happening from random sources. I request the news channels to please be relevant or we will become just like America by copying their bad habits not the good.

So the moral of this ping pong ball story is – Lets rise up to the level of the US not fall down to it.

The North South divide

Nope this is not another post about the North South divide in India……its about the attitudinal difference between the North and the South of the USA. I drove down to New Orleans, LA for a conference recently and was amazed by how green the south was. I was even more amazed when I saw a bridge traveling parallel over a river. It was then that a colleague, who had done her undergraduate education in Alabama, told me that the South is a lot more nature friendly than the north. Whereas in the North, they cut off trees to build roads and develop the infrastructure, in the South they try to avoid it. Interesting, I thought!