As I really took some time to prepare for my arrival to Bombay, “Shantaram” was not the only book I read. Another one, written by an indian author, V. Raghuntathan is called: “Games Indians play. Why we are the way we are?”. The author describs the Indian way of life using game theory and related concepts such us prisoner’s dilemma. (a very good book, thank you for it Ewa!) Why am I referring to it? It just perfectly explains the Indian understanding of freedom and democracy.
It is simply something unbelieveble how people can so much NOT care for the environment they are living in! I am not even mentioning being eco-friendly, it is about keeping some basic rules! Indian streets are extremely dirty. You see trash left everywhere, food waste on the tracks, construction materials on the sidewalks or even roads, buildings with unmatched balconies and awings, houses which nobody is taking care of, looking just ugly, public toiletes which you can smell from the distance of meters, people actually urinating and spiting on the streets!
V. Raghuntathan explains this in an interesting way. First of all, the law and regulations in India are so bad that nobody is even scared of being punished. What can the police do if you drive on the red light? Even if they catch you you can always try and bribe the policeman, paying a funnily small sum of money. Second of all, Indians share this common belief that if one person as an individual does something wrong then it won’t do much harm to the entire society. That might be true but if multiplying this belief by 19 milion of Bomby inhabitants you will get an enormous mess! You live in mess but then you think: “if it is messy already one bag of trash which I throw on the street won’t make any difference…” Unfortunately, the other 18999999 people think the same.
Well, personally, I don’t know if there is any logic in this thinking – maybe you find some but no matter if it is there it still makes Indian cities look horrible. What can I do? I am just a random foreigner, staying here for some time only, my behavior won’t change anything…
Nah, for me it only looks bad on the outside.
ReplyDeleteTry going out (or coming back) at 6am and take a look what's going on on the streets. There are people to clean this mess. It's the same with washing your clothes. Indians have people to do it for them. To make fresh juice on the streets, or a chai wala to bring tea.
I find Indians to defy logic in a lot of their dealings. Its hard to write a rational book about them but Ill try and get hold of a copy - thanks for the tip.
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