By Vijay Phanshikar :
THIS ISSUE -- of people’s unruly
conduct on roads -- has a tendency
to keep cropping up in public
discourse again and again. There
may not be any social conversation
in town without a reference to the
uncouth and brazen behaviour of
the people in Maharashtra’s Second
Capital. Unfortunately, we can see
people from all walks of life -- from
all economic segments -- indulging
in blatant, brazen misconduct on
roads or public places, breaking all
rules and norms, and also defying
common sense. In the process,
such people lose the sense of the
larger society within whose
parameters one has to conduct life.
This issue threatens to survive all
the larger society’s appeals to good
sense of the violators of civic
dignity and responsibility that
everyone must possess and
practise. The appealers of good
sense will perish -- but not the
violators of good sense. And the
city of Nagpur will continue to be
mocked by such people -- and
bullied by them -- and sullied by
them ... !
And, as everybody knows, the
cops are helpless against these
violators. Yes, purely helpless.
Purely hapless. They can’t do a
damn to effect correction of the
brazenness that people come
across on roads and at
intersections and in public places.
They -- these violators of good
sense -- spit anywhere and
everywhere; they keep talking on
their cell-phones while riding their
two-wheelers or driving their
four-wheelers; or walking right in
the middle of the road or across the
roads; or stop their vehicles
anytime and anywhere without
caring to signal a stop ...!
And they -- the cops -- watch
helplessly (as said earlier). And
other people, too, do the same. ...
... as if there is no solution to this
problem, as if there isaconspiracy
to sully and soil people’s
experience of appearing in public
places for whatever reason.
It was not without a reason that a
well-known cardiologist (who
heads a major hospital in the city)
once confided with the loosefooter
that each time he moves out of his
house or hospital, he senses his
blood pressure rising menacingly --
thanks to the blatant, brazen
unruliness on the road !
How does the city solve this
problem -- if the cops do not seem
to be able to do anything in this
regard, if the COMMON PEOPLE
are not picking up courage to
accost the violators
left-right-and-centre.
COMMON PEOPLE ! -- this term
needs a further explanation. For,
COMMON PEOPLE do not include
the violators. For the violators are
not common people. They are
SPECIAL in every sense -- different
from others as they consider
themselves as the Government’s
‘sons-in-law’ !
Yes, ‘sons-in-law’ -- in Indian
colloquialism !
JAMAI-RAJAS ! -- THESE
BLATANT, BRAZEN BLOKES !
D
O WE have an answer to
this? Can we -- the people of
this historic city -- find an
answer or solution to this
‘man-made’ problem ? Or, in other
words, do we have the time and
inclination and resolution to solve
this problem ?
The loosefooter seeks to know --
on behalf of all common citizens of
Nagpur -- which include rich and
poor, young and old, men and
women !
It is his right to raise this
question -- and he asserts that
right, in sheer exasperation, in
sheer frustration, in sheer disgust !
But, the loosefooter also knows it
well that he cannot get angry -- like
the protagonist in the iconic
Marathi movie Dombivali Fast
portrayed by Sandeep Kulkarni --
and kill violators !
And to be sure, the violators, too,
know that all too well !
Therefore .....!