this is an outburst on my part. a few hours back, a bad accident happened on airport road, bangalore, involving a volvo bus. Current reports suggest that 6 people died in the mishap. It also mentions that an irate mob that gathered at the spot, burnt the bus. This is extremely disgustful. With all due respect to the departed souls, why the hell does the bus have to be burnt? Goddammit, kill the erring driver if u have the guts, you illiterate, uncivilized bastards!! If the people died, its because of him, not the bus. If he too hasn't died in the accident, make sure he is incapable of ever controlling a steering wheel again, provided he is guilty.
Its frustration. thats what it is. Not one in the mob cares for the people who died. They in all probability are the losers who have nothing going right in their life and honestly think that the govt is fully to blame. They're just looking for avenues to vent out their angst. What better way than this?
The bus has no value when compared to the lives that were lost today ofcos, but does burning it justify anything or mean anything? These have been procurred at great cost for the convenience of the people, especially to encourage them to use public transport and thereby reduce traffic woes. Each of these volvo buses that you see on the roads easily costs above Rs 70 lakh. The money that went up in flames today would have been enuf to support the families of the dead for a long long time.
There's this other angle too to this. That of bangloreans being outnumbered by the influx of people from other states and the feeling that these 'outsiders' are usurping their homeland. IT being the biggest attraction in the city, software engineers are venomously branded 'outsider'. Thus anything that has to do with a higher standard of living gets associated with them and thereby a source of discontentment. The volvo buses are seen in the same light.
It doesn't stop here. It never will. One day there will be an implosion. God forbid that, amen.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
A Volvo's martyrdom
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Angst is right, but recall some interesting stuff from Shantaram as well: (page 85, middle)
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India is about six times the size of France. But it has almost twenty times the population. Twenty times! Believe me, if there were a billion Frenchmen living in such a crowded place, there would be rivers of blood. Rivers of blood! And, as everyone knows, we French are the most civilized people in Europe. Indeed, in the whole world. No, no, without love, India would be impossble.
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So, I feel we aren't doing too bad.
Also, seen at the start of the Infosys Annual Report 1996—1997:
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If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich—JFK
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I dont agree with Shastrix. We are in such a mess because opinion-capable people like Shastrix seem to attribute such violence to India's complexity.
ReplyDeleteThhe 'And so its fine" attitude isn't going to get us anywhere.
I've made up my mind though. Read this when you get a mo - Enough