Show Me the Traffic And I will tell you the Culture

I drive to my office every day , a journey of almost 50 kms ; to and fro, during which I have to negotiate my way safely through many cross roads. Its real fun negotiating through these roads as they are of great learning value. Thanks to these roads, I have developed some important attributes that have made my Life better ; patience, importance of being cool headed, always keeping a smile on face even when someone has hit his mobike on the bumper behind.

Besides these attributes that i have developed in last 19 years since the time I came out of armed forces, I also had an enlightening experience one day, I realised that the way we move on roads is also a reflection of our culture, our attitudes, our ethics and values, we as a society cherish and uphold. Please keep Religion out of this.

If the analogy - You can tell a man by his shoes , is applied to the traffic, you can easily figure out the culture of the city . Stand near  a cross road and watch how the traffic moves and one can easily figure out the culture; its ethics and values.

Someone very rightly pointed out ; “ The nations that rank as the least corrupt— Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, and Singapore—are also the safest places in the world to drive.”

Some enlightening experiences that I had during my daily commutation of almost 50 kms through the city traffic are shared below ;

1. Every one seems to be in a hurry. Some one rightly said " ours is a country where everyone is in a hurry but no one is ever on time". As a Society we have no concept of Time, leave aside valuing own time we do not care about wasting others' time as well. As a Rule , we leave late and so drive hurriedly and consequently REACH LATE. 

1. People can appear from any direction and one has to be a fox like ; always alert and flexible. If you have to apply breaks to save a person who has appeared suddenly from a wrong side do not stare back at him, because he will also stare back at you without a sense of guilt or remorse , He will still continue his journey on the wrong side of the road. So, just smile and move on. This may happen every day with you and its pointless losing your temper or staring back. Cultural Indicator; PEOPLE here have no concern for others, even if they are causing inconvenience to others nor they have any sense of guilt. They have big egos but lack self esteem.
2. The SUVs move as if they are Gods own chariot. One has to be very careful with them. Their window glasses are usually dark so you cannot even see inside, who is driving. Forget about SLEEPING on pavements, Do not even stand on a pavement also, particularly at night, be rest assured, the people sitting inside the SUV might be drinking. Cultural Indicator ; JISKI LATHI USKI BHAINS. The owners of SUVs have very deep pockets and can fight the case till SC and will get away with murders.
3. No one cares for the traffic lights, they may keep changing from Red to Yellow and Green but in real sense they make no difference to the movement of Traffic. People keep pouring in from all sides, absolutely indifferent to the Traffic lights. Cultural Indicator ; NO ONE CARES FOR THE RULES / Laws here and also inconvenience caused to others. This habit one can notice any where ; People throw waste outside on the roads, they park their vehicles right behind an already parked vehicle and go away, while you are standing in a qeue waiting for your turn, suddenly one person comes and adjusts himself in front in the gap that you have left.
4. There are a few cross roads on which there are CCTV cameras as well as Cops also Posted to control things, but one often find them watching the whole drama as if either their souls have been enlightened and attained Moksha or else they have also given up. At times due to exuberance they do try and catch those flouting the rules but the defaulters are in plenty so they are either able to dodge the cops. It’s really a funny site,wathcing the few cops surrounded by so many defaulters that the rest have a field day. Cultural Indicator ; Following rules is burdensome, time consuming, a hurdle and a mark of being rigid whereas violating rules is their democratic right. HUM TO JO MAN MEY AAYEGA KARENGEY (We will do whatever we feel like). Taking Short cuts, taking whatever recourse/means available even if one has to cheat or be dishonest or cause inconvenience to some one to get going and achieve success is being Smart and the Norm. No wonder Corruption is now deep into our DNA. 

This is the Behaviour that we display on roads. Behaviour is an outcome of our attitudes. Violating a traffic rule indicates our attitude towards Rules ; KYA FARQ PARTA HAI( What Difference does it make) , in  this country everyone is doing it. It also indicates our attitude towards law enforcing agencies ; YAAR PAKDE GAYE TO SAU KA NOTE DE DENGE POLICE WAALEY KO. (If caught, we will pay 100 bucks to the cop and get away).

Culture is a holistic term that encompasses the social behavior, attitudes, norms found in societies as well as beliefs and values of the individuals in these groups. If we have to truly enquire Why in 70 years we have not become like China, South Korea, UK , Germany and Japan , the simple thing to do is Stand on the Cross Road of your city and observe the behavior…one will surely get the answer. The behaviour that we display today, will not take us anywhere near Japan, South Korea, Switzerland,  even if we become a Five trillion economy.