Indian Culture on the Road

The Culture of a people is sum of stuff like religious beliefs, social structure and values, art forms, books and tales, leaders, racial mix, immigration, emigration, history and economics, and a lot more. And it is constantly changing with each passing moment creating a new set of these variables. It's not necessarily evolving, as human history tells us we have always found ways to screw up our lives and those of others on grounds so stupid that we feel ashamed of ourselves, and we are definitely not getting more civilized in our ways. (What does "civilized" mean anyway?)

I think a great way to evaluate the culture of a Nation is to study how people behave on its roads. Look at India for example. The following, which I witness every day, characterize our behavior on roads in general:

• Extremely poor adherence to traffic rules is a characteristic of India on the streets. The unwritten and unacknowledged, yet all-pervading rules are the following:
• Totally ignore all traffic rules when there is no Traffic police watching
• No need to bother about the traffic signal if there is no traffic police around
• Leads to mass traffic signal violation and dangerously concentric traffic, which somehow escapes collisions
• The irony is that even those who want to follow traffic rules are forced to join the herd, otherwise they'll be crushed by the stampede of vehicles
• In case of heavy traffic, while everyone trying to push his/her way through invariably leads to a logjam, yet  nobody gives way to anyone else
• Don't give way to anyone, even if it is an ambulance with its siren roaring loudly
• It is perfectly fine to stop your vehicle in the middle of the road even for trivial reasons without bothering you are blocking the traffic
• Narrow roads without exists and space for stopping is definitely one reason, but what's really alarming is the total insensitivity with which some people stop and don't bother for a long time
• If someone shouts at you, simply shout back, irrespective of whose mistake it is
• Honk as much as you can to make way for yourself
• Look down upon everyone else on the road especially those with smaller vehicles
• Believe in Me first, everyone else later, as far as possible
• If you hit someone, run away if you are sure you won't be caught
• If you are in a car, you don't need to worry if you are splashing water or dust on someone walking by the road-side
• If you are in a car, those on 2-wheelers and those on foot are a nuisance. If you are on a 2-wheeler, those on cycles and those on foot are a nuisance. If you are on a cycle or if you are on foot, everyone who is on a motor vehicle is a nuisance. If you are on foot, everyone who is on a vehicle of any sort is a nuisance.
• Lanes drawn on the roads are just for aesthetic appeal, and they are not meant for anything else
• It is sometimes fun to drive with one of those white lines running through the middle of your car
• And of course, the concept of lanes does not apply to a vehicle with less than 4 tires
• Taking random turns at will and assuming those behind will notice and apply brakes
• If you hit someone, fight with all your might but never accept your mistake
• If yours is a bigger vehicle, you can assume everyone else will give you way
• Honk often to clear the road and make way for yourself
• Tease girls and women on the roads
• ...
• ...
• ...

And so on... I think all the above together portray Indian Culture to a great extent, if not completely. The aspects which I see coming out clearly are - Corruption, Hypocrisy, Lying, Deception, Cheating, Cruelty, Dishonesty, Cowardice, Herd Mentality, Pretension, Selfishness, Self Centeredness, Carelessness, Recklessness, Ruthlessness, Immaturity, Distrust, Weakness, Apathy, Lasciviousness, Power Hunger, Avariciousness, Arrogance, Atheism, Argumentativeness, Ignorance, etc. etc. etc.

Herd Mentality

Following the herd is a natural tendency in all humans. We grow up focussing on specific subjects in school, we take up specific & popular streams for professional studies and most of us land up in similar jobs, if we are from a similar social, economic and educational backgrounds. And those who choose to enter business, some of them called entrepreneurs, pick popular lines of business and end up repeating, without much of a difference, something done by many others.

I was fortunate to study in an IIM for 2 years during which I saw herd mentality demonstrated in the most conspicuous ways by some of the most intelligent people. As soon as you join, the seniors bombard you with theories on how to spend your time best at IIM - what to do, which committees to target, which courses to take, Consulting or I-Banking or Marketing or Entrepreneurship, which companies to look forward to, how to prepare for them, importance of building your CV, importance of building your CGPA, importance of participating in all kinds of competitions, etc. And all this takes only moments to get ingrained into each of those heads listening intently hoping to making it big in life. The brains are instantly reconfigured with new dreams, new ambitions, new desires. My batch was fooled by telling us BCG was coming on the day we joined, for recruiting for summer internships, and believe me, almost the entire batch went crazy preparing CVs. The seniors even did a fake pre-placement talk. Many who didn't care still went ahead and submitted their CVs, coz everyone else was doing so. A few didn't bother, mostly coz they knew it was all a hoax. Very few actually didn't care and didn't do anything, and had the nerves to tell those "angry" seniors that they didn't give a damn. A lot of such pressure tactics were applied officially and unofficially - by calling it a "hoax" - to mould our heads in shape of that of a typical MBA.

A few do manage to shake themselves up soon after such brainwashes and get back to their original sweet world. (Many of them succum later on.) But most are carried away and the scattered paths of their lives quickly align themselves in a few popular paths. The seniors don't do it just for pleasure, although they do draw a lot of it while trying to shape views. They do, in fact, genuinely believe what they are doing is the right thing - partly because they are also victims of the same brainwashing tradition, and partly because they still haven't seen enough to learn better, coz this being a 2 year MBA, the 2nd year batch is still just aspiring for what they chose a year back and they draw their strength to keep working on the chosen path by displaying firm belief in it - by pretending and by teaching the same to others.

Another striking display of herd mentality can be seen in matters of breaking rules, even law, especially when it is not perceived as rational enough or if following it is costlier than breaking it. Or it could be a cultural phenomenon - not to follow rules, and break them in a herd so that the blame is shared and in effect is on nobody. I see that everyday on the roads in India.

One of the reasons herd mentality sets in so easily in choices people make may be lack of reliable information and insecurity in common people, due to which they rely on social channels for forming opinions and choose seemingly less risky, well-tried and tested alternatives. Secondly, while our societies and families do play the good role of providing a check and acceptance/rejection for everything we want to do, they also, in the process, instil in our minds a lot of doubts and fears. And we end up training ourselves not to apply our minds but to flow with the tide. It may not be conscious, but that's one of the cases where nurture tries to overcome nature. It doesn't always succeed, of course. And thirdly, it could be purely a cultural phenomenon, like the case of violation of traffic rules in India.

kuch to timepass comparison

Every bald man alive and dead has seen a moment when he came to know the schocking reality that he is on the road to baldness and has already covered half the distance without knowing and with the belief that he can't ever get bald. He still covers half of the remaining distance keeping himself in denial and covering bald patches with smart comb-work, which the world knows and notices, yet doesn't comment or does so with suppressed smiles and mildly sympathetic ayyayyos. This is the Sachin Tendulkar phase of baldness. And finally when the man decides he can't deny it any more and lets his strands loose, he realizes the world doesn't care and it knew all along of the barren islands which never erupt.

This sounds like the lifecycle of a bollywood star, especially a heroine, once in huge demand for her youth and beauty, and later thrown into oblivion once the first signs of aging appeared and Olay didn't help. Or a sports star who can no longer play well enough. Although the important difference is that a baldy was never paid for his hair while a heroine earned money for her beauty (and the sports guy for his ability to play the game well), I think the emotional states of both are still quite similar, particularly in the Sachin Tendulkar phase. And I guess the parallels end right there. Post that phase, a bald man usually regains confidence and does well with his life and work. But bollywood or sports celebrities go one of two routes - (1) get more and more frustrated sine die and finally die, i.e., enter a Rajesh Khanna phase, or (2) make a new beginning in a new avatar and create new goals with a new zeal, i.e., enter an Amitabh Bacchan phase. The main reason the parallels end is that for a bollywood or sports celebrity the cause of frustration was also work-related. For a baldy, it was only an appearance issue, and his appearance never earned him any money. I guess the differences are more obvious than the similarities, and I won't write more on this lame comparison :)