Today I want to focus and concentrate on something that has annoyed me since a long time and the state of affairs just seem to be getting worse. Its been a really long time since autorickshaws have been plying on Mumbai streets. Years ago I clearly remember never having a problem with getting a rickshaw for commute from one destination to another. The rickshaw drivers were courteous and cooperative. I cannot clearly recall when and how things changed and why! But currently it has deteriorated to such an extent that it can be tolerated no more purely because there can be no justification to the behaviour and demands of these drivers.
Firstly they callously refuse to take you from one place to another, which if someone could just remind them is precisely what they and their vehicles are meant for. Earlier, they had issues about going from east to west or vice versa. Now they even have issues taking you within the east or the west. For those who know Mumbai and the suburban areas well, would understand the following. There are times I have tried to hail a rick from SV road santacruz to say SV road khar or bandra, just one straight road, and they have refused. Sometimes I actually feel like asking them if they would rather fly somewhere because they seem to have issues going anywhere and everywhere. Then there are those that will tell you that they will take you to a certain point and not beyond or into a particular area. And the tone is more like they are doing you some favour, though its on their terms and conditions. At such times, firstly people should ideally tell them to buzz off or if desperate to get somewhere just say 'Ok I will pay you less than what the meter reads cos you are not taking me where I want to go'! Then another norm these days seems to be them not having/ wanting to return change back to you. An easy way for them is just to say that they dont have it. Breaking signals is their right and they do it all the time ,even in stark daylight , which not to mention adds to the ever increasing traffic and creates more of a commotion. Thanks to all this our city just seems to be getting more and more uncivilised by the day and chaos seems to be the order of the day. Another aspect that almost always baffles me is that you may be going from point X to point Y almost daily ie the same route and the same place and the meter reading almost is different everytime. Once in a while you can blame it on the traffic or some other factor but not every single time. Its like say you have to go to a place which you know will be a minimum fare of Rs 11, given the distance, but in my experience and that of many others I knwo, it ranges from 11 to 15 or even more sometimes. If that is not a case in point of meter tampering then what is !!!
Then are the days of some problems that the city faces in the form of heavy rains or some other such aspects and again these very asses have the gall to ask for more fare and not go by the meter. Some heart and some audacity! I clearly remember that even on days of the train blasts some rickshaw drivers asked for more fare to transport people. These are days when they should have ideally gone out of their way to cooperate with the irate and vulnerable public and help tehm out in whichever way they could. But instead they added to their woes and stress by acting like totally irresponsible heartless human beings!
According to me, by far, the worst that they have done and continue to do is when they turn down old, invalid people. That is downright inhuman and unacceptable. I have heard of people complaining that they literally plead with them to take them where they need to go especially if its an emergency situation and someone needs to get to a doctor or a hospital, and they still refuse to cooperate. Its so disheartening to see an old person standing on the road and trying hard to hail a rick with no luck and most ricks just saying NO and going off like they have something better to do than their very own job. At such times I often wish we were empowered with certain rights as citizens to take strong action against such offenders or complain to an authority, which for once will handle this sort of stuff efficiently.
Most times we as women might just feel why take panga with such people as you never know what kind of an idiot you are dealing with and what if you get into trouble etc. We read incidents in the newspapers where these guys get violent. In the recent past an old man lost his life because he got into an arguement/ fight with one such character and then a gang of other drivers joined him to harass and beat up the old man who was eventually hurt on his head and lost his live eventually! These incidences do give you perspective and you wonder if its worth getting into any kind of interaction or dialogue with these people. To add to that we also have a conditioning that goes,' ke aise logon ke mooh nahi lagte' . The whole point is lagna bhi kaun chahta hai but how much nonsense can one tolerate! How long are we going to be held ransom to their whims and fancies. Today they have the guts to go on strike because they are being made answerable for their own follies. What kind of warped logic is that! In normal situations anyone not doing their job 'well' is also pulled up. Here, let alone "well", they are refusing to even do the very job they chose to do and they are allowed to get away with it, just because their union is handled by someone with the right connections and enough clout.
I think as citizens it might be a good start to give them a befitting reply by boycotting rickshaws for a day or like a weekend as the latter will not inconvenience people given that there is no pressure of reaching their work place etc! Maybe then, whether or not it makes a difference to them monetarily, atleast as citizens we are sending out a loud and clear message that their blackmail and bull shit will not be tolerated. If you are here to do a job just shut up and do it. As it is we deal with their fuss almost on a daily basis apart from dealing with ever increasing and tampered with fares. And the least we deserve is that our commute should be peaceful and problem free in the otherwise chaotic city that we live in!
Monday, September 19, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Are we really so HELPLESS!!!!????
My next post was supposed to be a happy one .... I wanted to write about my serene monsoon getaway and another overdue one..which I promised my friend Asha ... that on Gulzar ... For now these two will have to wait ......... My frame of mind is different ....It is a mix of emotions ...... that of anger, fear, hurt, hatred, vulnerability, helplessness and the list goes on......
Another bomb blast and another list of innocent victims ....The common man is angry, and all that he gets to hear is a series of monotonous and shallow assurances ...... The same words , the cliched speech ...... it almost makes one nauseous.... and one cannot help but wonder .. " are we really that helpless"........ as usual there is a public outrage ... there are many questions and no answers ..... is the common man's life so invaluable and worthless ?!How long are we going to continue to be targets whilst the government continues to be as inefficient as ever and blurt out absurdities in the name of explanations that are as foolish as they are unbelievable........
How many terrorist attacks does it take to pull up our socks and say 'enuff is enuff".....On the one hand we have India which short of laying out a red carpet for these terrorists has done everything to make such attacks conducive ..... and on the other hand we have 'The Big daddy" who goes right into countries and flushes out the terrorists, with or without proof..... They just avenge and owe no explanations to anyone ....... and is that not the way it should be.. Its only logical apart from being the only way to send out a clear and loud message to anyone and everyone who harbours such malintentions........If not anything else, atleast our country can take a lesson or two from the way America goes about these matters ..... The recent operation which smoked out Osama is certainly a case in point........
Another factor that is absolutely annoying and provoking is the fact that such a big deal is made out of our spirit and resilience ...... Honestly is there any other option or choice?! Life has to go on and no one can afford to sit home 24/7 given that this fear lurks around all the time.....
We have a Qasab whose fate still hangs when ideally and as per law he is th eone who should....... A news channel reported that the government has already spent close to 32 crores on him...... even if that is an exaggerated figure , any approximate estimate would still be a huge one and a total waste of our resources all the same ....... Justice delayed is indeed justice denied.... And what more proof than having soild evidence in the form of footage of CCTV cameras ........ You have this man who went about killing people ruthlessly and it was for the world to see...... and then we have a mercy petition for the same ..... How absurd and ridiculous is that?! And then we have the issue of human rights.... what about the human rights of those who lost their precious lives in these attacks .... Didnt they have the right to live .. Why dont the human right activists fight for that ............
The politicians have high level security and they havent even earned it ...... What kind of a warped constitution decides these things ...... These corrupt selfish morons need to be protected but the average citizen of this country is always left to fend for himself .....how should he go about his own security and save himself from these coward dastartdly acts committed by lunatics in the name of religion .........Why cant we have a system in place where the 'aam aadmi' receives the security and protection that he rightfully deserves, even if that means diverting the resources and stripping the netas of their protective shield and cover.......
Maybe we need a high profile figure to be targetted to take terrorism as a serious threat to the very fabric of this nation and all that it stands for......Im not sadistic but at the same time I feel its high time that something happens which forces the government to pay enough attention to these matters and do the needful, which has been long overdue.......Or maybe we need another "Anna Hazare" type of movement to bring about a change or atleast set things in motion.......
Its sad that we have become so immune that any news of a terrorist attack just makes us numb after sometime.. We go through all the same emotions and at the end just feel helpless! And that is the bigger question ... Are we really and actually that helpless or are we just made to feel that way by the same silly reassurances that serve to be just lip service rather than a genuine ray of hope ......... Its become such a joke now ..... Some loonies come in, plant bombs , kill innocent people and walk away feeling proud and satisfied while we rave and rant which anyway falls on deaf ears ......And at the end of it all we have our home minister saying some rubbish like this time around we had better systems in place and the police did a better job..... Of what ???!!!! And a robot of a prime minister assuring the country that we will not succumb to these acts of terror ..... Its like everytime something like this happens, it looks like some button has been switched on and he delivers his ridiculous sppeech and then the button is automatically turned off!! I have yet to hear a more monotone speech than the one this man delivers each time.......We succumb time and again and we have this wonderful man, supposedly at the helm of affairs making such false, empty promises on behalf of a nation that is tired and angry, and certainly does not voice the same sentiment as his, but all the same does not know what to do ......... Like I read somewhere or someone said, we do not know whats worse .. these terrorists that come from outside and attack us or the internal terrorists in the form of the politicians who are corroding the roots and foundation of our wonderful country.........
I end this feeling the anguish, the insecurity and the despair as I do not know what lies ahead, for us............ I do not know when the common man will feel safe enough leaving his home for work and be assured that he will return home safely at the end of a laborious and hard day .........I do not know when there will no more be a fear in the eyes of the near and dear ones of a bread winner when they bid him goodbye at the start of a day ..... I do not know when we will feel safe enough to visit places like malls, markets,places of worship and theatres without the dread of being blown up into pieces...........
And the fact that I do not know .......makes me feel helpless enough!!!!
Another bomb blast and another list of innocent victims ....The common man is angry, and all that he gets to hear is a series of monotonous and shallow assurances ...... The same words , the cliched speech ...... it almost makes one nauseous.... and one cannot help but wonder .. " are we really that helpless"........ as usual there is a public outrage ... there are many questions and no answers ..... is the common man's life so invaluable and worthless ?!How long are we going to continue to be targets whilst the government continues to be as inefficient as ever and blurt out absurdities in the name of explanations that are as foolish as they are unbelievable........
How many terrorist attacks does it take to pull up our socks and say 'enuff is enuff".....On the one hand we have India which short of laying out a red carpet for these terrorists has done everything to make such attacks conducive ..... and on the other hand we have 'The Big daddy" who goes right into countries and flushes out the terrorists, with or without proof..... They just avenge and owe no explanations to anyone ....... and is that not the way it should be.. Its only logical apart from being the only way to send out a clear and loud message to anyone and everyone who harbours such malintentions........If not anything else, atleast our country can take a lesson or two from the way America goes about these matters ..... The recent operation which smoked out Osama is certainly a case in point........
Another factor that is absolutely annoying and provoking is the fact that such a big deal is made out of our spirit and resilience ...... Honestly is there any other option or choice?! Life has to go on and no one can afford to sit home 24/7 given that this fear lurks around all the time.....
We have a Qasab whose fate still hangs when ideally and as per law he is th eone who should....... A news channel reported that the government has already spent close to 32 crores on him...... even if that is an exaggerated figure , any approximate estimate would still be a huge one and a total waste of our resources all the same ....... Justice delayed is indeed justice denied.... And what more proof than having soild evidence in the form of footage of CCTV cameras ........ You have this man who went about killing people ruthlessly and it was for the world to see...... and then we have a mercy petition for the same ..... How absurd and ridiculous is that?! And then we have the issue of human rights.... what about the human rights of those who lost their precious lives in these attacks .... Didnt they have the right to live .. Why dont the human right activists fight for that ............
The politicians have high level security and they havent even earned it ...... What kind of a warped constitution decides these things ...... These corrupt selfish morons need to be protected but the average citizen of this country is always left to fend for himself .....how should he go about his own security and save himself from these coward dastartdly acts committed by lunatics in the name of religion .........Why cant we have a system in place where the 'aam aadmi' receives the security and protection that he rightfully deserves, even if that means diverting the resources and stripping the netas of their protective shield and cover.......
Maybe we need a high profile figure to be targetted to take terrorism as a serious threat to the very fabric of this nation and all that it stands for......Im not sadistic but at the same time I feel its high time that something happens which forces the government to pay enough attention to these matters and do the needful, which has been long overdue.......Or maybe we need another "Anna Hazare" type of movement to bring about a change or atleast set things in motion.......
Its sad that we have become so immune that any news of a terrorist attack just makes us numb after sometime.. We go through all the same emotions and at the end just feel helpless! And that is the bigger question ... Are we really and actually that helpless or are we just made to feel that way by the same silly reassurances that serve to be just lip service rather than a genuine ray of hope ......... Its become such a joke now ..... Some loonies come in, plant bombs , kill innocent people and walk away feeling proud and satisfied while we rave and rant which anyway falls on deaf ears ......And at the end of it all we have our home minister saying some rubbish like this time around we had better systems in place and the police did a better job..... Of what ???!!!! And a robot of a prime minister assuring the country that we will not succumb to these acts of terror ..... Its like everytime something like this happens, it looks like some button has been switched on and he delivers his ridiculous sppeech and then the button is automatically turned off!! I have yet to hear a more monotone speech than the one this man delivers each time.......We succumb time and again and we have this wonderful man, supposedly at the helm of affairs making such false, empty promises on behalf of a nation that is tired and angry, and certainly does not voice the same sentiment as his, but all the same does not know what to do ......... Like I read somewhere or someone said, we do not know whats worse .. these terrorists that come from outside and attack us or the internal terrorists in the form of the politicians who are corroding the roots and foundation of our wonderful country.........
I end this feeling the anguish, the insecurity and the despair as I do not know what lies ahead, for us............ I do not know when the common man will feel safe enough leaving his home for work and be assured that he will return home safely at the end of a laborious and hard day .........I do not know when there will no more be a fear in the eyes of the near and dear ones of a bread winner when they bid him goodbye at the start of a day ..... I do not know when we will feel safe enough to visit places like malls, markets,places of worship and theatres without the dread of being blown up into pieces...........
And the fact that I do not know .......makes me feel helpless enough!!!!
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