The price of an Indian

THE PRICE OF AN INDIAN

There was an accident few years back, near Gulbarga in Karnataka state. A state run bus ran in to a lake early in the morning while people slept. Around fifty of them died except the driver. Apparently the conductor was driving, while the driver slept. May be he lost control or slept while driving. When bus was fished out and pictures were aired all over. It was so obvious that so many people were trying to escape but could not as the bus was built like a cage.

Indian buses are notorious to have a small windows with iron rails running across the whole length. To make sure people do not put their heads out and climb through the windows, which the Indians are well known for. The buses in the developed world have very large glass windows, so that in case of an emergency they can break the glass to escape. Here in India, windows are such that no body should escape in times of emergency. Indian buses do not have any standards in terms of road worthiness and safety. Our buses do not deserve fitness certificate right from the day they are manufactured. Some body makes a bus chassis and some company covers the chassis with a box to make it look like a bus, throwing few chairs within. No engineering brain is needed.

          Finally nothing happened about that incident, over time everybody forgot. If it was of international standard, most of the passengers could have survived by just breaking the glass and swimming to safety. Imagine dying helplessly struggling in crowded bus when you are drowning, it is worse than dying in a blast. No media raised this issue. Because the media is filled with the same incompetent people who have no concern for the country or humanity, as long as they have story where there is money. They are so concerned about an actress getting pregnant; they will predict the weight of the baby, with color and possible name eight months prior to the birth of the baby.

          There was a bus accident near Coorg, a night bus rammed in to a parked truck packed with logs. Some of the logs came out of the back of the bus on the impact, so many lost lives. Again another bus rammed in to a tractor carrying logs killing some more. The lorry or the tractor should have been displaying reflectors on the back. But they did not and it is always impossible to see these things as they do not reflect light. It is the same with pedestrians, who try to cross the road in the night thinking that the drivers can see them, since he has big lights. What they do not realize is that drivers cannot see them many times as they do not reflect light. In spite these accidents happening regularly no body has made it mandatory for vehicles to have reflectors. 

Everything in this country is a disaster waiting to happen. We have so many bus, train and boat tragedies so often that we do not care.  The number of accidents in India where innocents die are the highest in the world. No media is fighting this war. Media is busy threatening to expose and making money or having useless debates where the experts never get to talk and only the bullies get the airtime. 

          While on visit to a bird sanctuary near Mysore, I saw a boat ride with around 8 to 10 people with no life jackets. There were crocodiles in the river and the boatman goes very close to crocodiles to show them around. If one person panics, it is the end of the journey for the entire crowd.  Even the people are not concerned about this. What about the incident where a family was swept away near Indore which was filmed and posted on the face book. Every day we see so many young guys dying drowning in rivers and falls. Testosterone, alcohol and booming economy is a deadly cocktail for disasters which is killing them on the roads and rivers.

These unnecessary losses of lives are due to failure of the system and irresponsible behaviour of the people. People are really worse than animals in terms of their own safety. Wherever you see Indians you find total disregard for safety of others and themselves. Everybody assumes bad things happen to others. And will not realize until it hits them. Indians on the road with vehicles are menace to the society. Most of them have not gone to a driving school, and every one has his own rule of driving. These are just the tip of the iceberg of the value an Indian has in India. Who will bell the cat?  

Buy Three get six free

Buy three get six free.   

          A common commercial and we all rush in. Are they really throwing away so many free? They are in business right, then how can they give so many free for buying a few? We always bought when there was a need. Now we are buying everything possible since there is an offer or otherwise. All the companies are overproducing and are selling their waste and garbage as offers.

         

World is facing over consumerism. People are buying everything without reason and hardly know the needs. We have a problem of obesity in the world for a simple reason of overeating. In American food industry, the sizes have been increasing over years. Everything is served in big sizes; an ordinary burger has increased in size at least by two to three times in couple of decades. People are overeating as the companies lure them with offers. They just want money and more money at any cost. The idea is best margin and higher profit by spending less.

          Everything in the world is growth, every body wants higher growth. A steel maker wants to increase his capacity, a car maker wants to make more cars and everybody wants to increase their production. We assume we will be prosperous by this growth. Produce more to earn more. The future superpower China is ahead in economic growth since it has enormous exports. China is the only country which produces everything imagined in the world in every possible shape and sizes. Whether it is a toy or any appliance sold on the foot paths everywhere is made in china. Most of these are cheap in terms of quality and price. Since it is cheap you buy, before you know, it is broken and pieces are all over your house and end up as garbage. These are sold for few rupees and even if few million buy they have earned few millions. The raw materials for the same would be in few tonne, which end up as garbage serving no purpose to mankind.  

India is next in line producing these cheap mimics. They are contributing a lot of junk in to the world. Yes we need production for humanity but not cheap stuff, which ends up as garbage in few days. Everybody wants to be in business as it makes faster money. So many hungry corporates are leading millions of others in to business. We have millions on the footpath across the country selling piece of trash. They are non productive and their actions are only a burden on the environment. 

          World is building and enormous amount of cement, sand and steel are used. How long will these raw materials last? There is a limit to the resources. World’s greed is using up every possible resources like metals, stones, sand and everything. Finally we may be left with earth with moon surface. Most of the producers are making cheap products which do not last and end up as garbage and cannot be recycled.

          How many of us know how to use water. Billions of litres of water is wasted in the country by the poorly built low quality leaking taps. These low quality taps are flooded in the market and have used up lot of resources and are a strain on the country and planet. Lot of water is wasted even in farming without proper practice. And farming itself is causing lot of problems to the earth. Rivers are drying up. The rivers which used to flow in full are filled with dirty sewage water and hardly move.

Massive scale of agriculture is altering the normal ecosystem. We need enormous amount of food, for huge population we are bringing on to earth. What about the food we waste, how many of us are conscious about the wastage of food. Forget overcooking or over ordering in a hotel. If you have seen a hostel mess you will know, how people waste food. They are greedy; they take more than they can chew and end up throwing food. Just imagine all around the world food being thrown in a day from different situations. 

Marriages in India are the worst offenders. They use up lot of resources for nothing. The amount of food wasted in marriages is  enormous; they just take everything on the menu when they cannot eat any. In turn they throw and waste.  I feel a day’s wastage of food around the world can feed the people with no food around the world. If only we learn to live with moderation and have little common sense world can change. 

Indiscriminate usage of resources is hurting the ecosystem. We are not bothered about it. Earth is going to be there, even after we have left, but with a desert. PS: All the pictures are copied from Google search, for illustrations only.