I came, I saw, I am Flabbergasted

I am not a lone worrier.  I would like to work with a team or a community. However, I saw the need to first understand the problem before joining any community to solve the problem. So, in last couple months I was here, I embarked on a mission to assess the damage. I criss-crossed Bangaluru in every means of transport and talked to commuters, auto rickshaw drivers, bus conductors and the general public about the problems and possible solutions. The problems ranged from most obvious ones bad roads, bad drivers to too many vehicles on the road and the solutions ranged from better infrastructure to more buses required. My assessment, there is good news and bad news. Bad news first, Bangaluru has reached a tipping point from where it will slip into extreme chaos. The good news is that if positive steps are taken immediately, it is possible to salvage Bangaluru from brink. 

 

Now that I had assessed the situation, I was ready to join an organization which is working towards solutions for common man’s problems and found praja.in. First thing I do when I research the organization is read their ‘about us’ page. Praja.in has the most insightful ‘about us’ page which is really about ‘us’. The most important point I noticed is that there are no names and it is truly a team effort.  Hats off to the Praja team for job well done. 

 

Before we can work on the solution, I would like to tell you a real incident, which changed my perception forever. Long time ago (1991) when I was leaving for US, my family, my parents, my sister and her children had come to drop me off in Mumbai. We had day’s time before my flight and we had been to the beach and were returning back to our hotel. We boarded the local train at marine lines and going to churchgate station. It was around 4.30 pm and the trains going towards church gate are empty and since it was only one stop to church gate, we were standing near the door. A person who was speaking in Mumbai accent, came and told us that ‘this is a virar train, so don’t stand in the door, go and sit inside and you will get ample time to get down’. We could not make head or tail of it and we ignored him and continued to stand at the door. After few moments he came back again and literally pushed us inside and kept saying ‘this is virar train go inside and sit’. This time we could not ignore him so we reluctantly went inside and sat. As the train was just reaching the churchgate station, thousands of people started rushing into the train shouting, pushing with all their might. People were falling, loosing slippers but, nobody cared. We all were new to Mumbai and from a quite small city called Bangaluru and we had never seen such a sight in our life time.   Apparently, virar is suburb of Mumbai is about 2 hours train ride from churchgate and people commuting there wanted to secure seats. That is why the rush. We realized what that man had done for us, he saved our lives. 

 

The moral of the story is that, in many situations, there is no time for explanation but for action and the action should be based on sound judgement, knowledge and free of any ulterior motive.   This is the kind of solution required for Bangaluru traffic. Swift action with a well thought out plan and knowledge. Over the next   few days, I would like to get involved with praja folks as much as possible and help find the right solution for the Bangaluru traffic.