It’s now every Bangalorean's priority to comment on traffic condition. There are websites and other forums to discuss the same. It’s now fashionable too to lament infrastructure in Bangalore.
This points to an Indian habit which is in the vein of every Indian - the habit of clamoring only when the problem gets worse. In the thick of this noise pollution, we miss visionaries and knowledgeable who can anticipate and resolve issues. Where are all the leaned? Are present day problems the result of lack of visionaries?
If we look at other developed countries, two aspects blindingly strike the eyes of the observer.
1. More civilized societies resolve issues using scientific methods.
This is where we miss the learned.
2. People living in more civilized societies are less selfish
People in Singapore do not spit on roads because majority of people do not like spitting on roads. To prevent a minority spitting on the road, the majority passed several rules to punish the minority violators.
In India, majority likes to spit on road. Luckily we have not made rule to punish the majority who does not like to spit on road. This means we are not yet evaluated the consequences of spiting on the road. For us, Indians, "It’s ok..What is there?" Even then, like the honourable former President observed, we never spit on Singapore road when we are in Singapore. This is true Democracy..Democracy is actually majority democracy. Majority decides the bahaviour of a society. Scientists do not have say in the society where the majority is constituted by astrologers. So however much we clamour, do we have a hope as long as the clamouring community is minority? Because of this , I truly believe that only the Epic-sculptor Maya of our purana, who built Indraprastha, can reincarnate and resolve the infrastructure issue in India.
When we make a clamor on road condition and other infrastructure issues, No one bothers to imagine, where do we want to reach, what is the target standard of infrastructure. Is it possible to make systems which are in practice in developed world?
We just want to resolve issues..Thats all. True, this is the job of elected government representatives..But they are helpless because there is acute shortage of the knowledge and experience of the learned.
More poeple are crossing peverty line today, but this does not mean that more and more are gaining knowledge. This is verymuch visible on the Indian roads. Today's tractor drivers are tommorw's taxi drivers..This does not mean that all of them are thorough with their driving lessons...instead, they preach their pre-historic driving lessons to the hapless drivers - a minority - who prefer to observe traffic rules.
Where are all the learned people? Majority have only common sense..a minority will have vision..in that, only a few will be lucky to find his/her way to govern the majority.