An Ideal citizen's tragedy

I really want to be a good citizen and keep the city clean. But where are the public dustbins? I once, in an ideal citizen's frame of mind, carried a piece of paper all the way from museum road till M.G road and dropped it in a dustbin i found there. If you expect me to do that on a regular basis, don't you think its a little too much to ask?
So before falling for "keep you city clean" hoardings, try to keep a track of dustbins in your locality.
If one fine day, your ideal citizen conscience pricks you, you can atleast walk confidently to the nearest dustbin and deposit your itch.

Road Rage in India

One of the headlines on rediff, today, proclaims "indians are road ragers without sense". Its true, but nobody has, or rather has tried to, get the right perspective. A very simple example. Say,you have 2 bottles each with you and say you fill one with 5 ball bearings and the other with 50. Now, if you shake the bottle, which bottle do you think will make more noise?
I noticed the same argument in a different context, ala Karan thapar's show on some news channel. Herein they were debating on mumbai's newly acquired tag, " rudest city in India". while listening to the teleconferencing panelists, i quite liked what rahul bose had to say. He said in not the same words, " Yes! its difficult to drive on Indian roads. But look at the traffic. Accidents happen because there is no place to drive. Compare this with L.A where many people die due to actual road rage. Empty roads and overspeeding cars with no regard for pedestrians. Thats road rage". That was my interpretation as should be anyone's. The point, however, is that road rage is primarily a function of the traffic and secondarily of road manners.

hand to pocket existence

Yesterday I accompanied a friend to the local police station for passport verification. We found the concerned person at his seat and my friend proceeded to get the paper work done. With some time to kill, I thought of spending it observing the surroundings. This is something i like to do very much. It was just another police station in every respect, but what caught my eye was interesting. It was a sign affixed above the doorway and it read " No fee for passport verification ". I couldn't help let out a chuckle, after reading it, knowing how farcical that sign is in the indian context. However, hoping for a miraculous exception, i continued my gaze around the place. I saw antiquated rifles in the guards hand which am sure have not been oiled in years and in case of an emergency will at most serve the purpose of a heavy rod. More antiquated though were the policemen themselves. Invariably pot-bellied and proud of it, they walked around the place with an air of importance, which had more to do with their backward s leaning stanze, thanks to the paunch!
Anyway, my friend was done with the work and just to gift wrap the session, i casually asked the person, " Is there anything else?". Prompt comes the matter of fact reply, " Processing charges ". Although it was expected and unavoidable, i decide to try my luck and bring his attention to the sign. The statement that followed was very interesting one. He replies with a smile, " that way, even cigarette packs have a statutory warning printed on them saying Cigarette smoking is injurious to health. But does that stop people from smoking ?". Realising the futility in debating, we proceed to the bargaining stage. We asked him bluntly, "how much". He replies bluntly, "Rs 200". Finally we give him Rs 100 and get going. Between Rs 200 and Rs 100, transpired a lecture on middlemen and how we are depriving one hand of food while feeding the other.
Good philosophy, wrong audience, what more can i say?

Quotable Quotes

I've found a new hobby in Quote collection. Kinda hard pressed for time, so here's one for you to chew on.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man"
- George Bernard Shaw