My turn to have a little rant :)

I remembered that I need to tell you about Bangalore and the train....

We read the paper pretty regularly - to hear about local stuff (and make sure we are not heading into trouble :) and to keep in touch with what is going on in the world. While we were in Bangalore we were in such a posh hotel that they delivered the paper to our door every morning :) There was an article in there about a terrible accident where some people were run over by a train - it caused a huge crowd to go running and 2 people were killed and one woman lost her leg(s) (it was to early to tell if it was one or both). It was very sad, but apparently totally unnecessary!!!! And here starts my rant on the general behavior of the Indian population....

We noticed from the moment of our arrival (and I commented on it in an earlier post) the...disregard for authority? the independence? selfishness? Who can say...anyway, people here do what they like when they like.

On the airplane the flight attendant announces that we need to stay in our seats until the plane arrives at the gate and the captain turns off the fasten seat belt signs (who hasn't heard that every time they have been on a plane?). Is this not good advice? Is this not for our own personal safety? While we were still rolling, the announcement still ringing in our ears, a couple of rows in front of us several Indian passengers stood up and started grabbing their luggage from the overhead bins! (irritating the flight attendants as that sort of behaviour is wont to do :)

A queue is a foreign concept to most people here, everyone rushes the window :)

The driving is a great example of this sort of behaviour, too....they drive like they own the road and they are the only road users that count (though people will tell you that people here drive knowing that if it's their time to go then they will go, but if it's not their time to go the gods will keep them safe....hence the Ganesh and other images/shrines they drive around with on their dashboard :)

Let me tell you what happened with the train and what the article suggested could have been done....

Many people were travelling for weddings that evening and they were changing trains in Bangalore. They were walking across the tracks (instead of taking the subway tunnel) to get to their platforms. The news report said many of them, including the victims, were talking on their mobile phones (ooo, don't even start me on drivers on their mobile phones, which is also stupid and dangerous, but walking across train tracks and not paying attention....death wish??? or the thought that the gods will protect them????) There was an engine that was backing up along the tracks....it had sounded it's horn, it was supposed to be on the move - e.g. this was not a runaway locomotive. Some people heard it/saw it coming and started to run and shout but the old people (??? one was in her 50s and another guy that was 62 or 63 - is that old?) couldn't move fast enough and three or 4 of them were run down, 2 died.

That is really a terrible thing. What's worse is that people here tend to take it out on the people that are in a position of responsibility - whether they are at fault or not - and the paper reported that the train driver and the station manager had absconded (you see this a lot in the paper...if they don't run then you will get reports that they were attacked by the mob and were injured or dead). As I said (and no one questioned) the train driver was not out of line by moving that engine and he did sound the horn....

The article in the paper really irritated me at the time - it did not mention (or even hint!!!) that maybe these people shouldn't have been walking across the tracks or that maybe they should have been paying a bit more attention (and not chatting on their phones). The article just went on to make suggestions as to what the station and the train company should do to prevent this sort of thing - like hire more guards to make sure people can't get on the tracks, or put up fences. We had been here for awhile and it just twanged my personal responsibility trigger...apparently it still does :)

You see this lack of personal responsibility all the time - the way people cross the road and step out in front of the traffic. Both A and I have had people (3 or 4 times EACH) step out in front of us - and nearly get themselves run over (if it wasn't for our extremely quick reactions :) Dogs and other animals we will let off the hook, but people should know better. It does explain why there is such a high number of pedestrian deaths on the roads here! There are rants in the motorbike magazines and in the papers saying pedestrians (and other road users) need to be more aware. One thing we have thought (and talked about :) is that it seemed that some of these people just got tired of waiting and just decided they were going to cross regardless. And we have seen loads of other people (pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists....trucks and buses!!!!) just pull out into the road without even a look at the oncoming traffic...it is SCARY!!!!

Now don't start worrying about us, we are good and careful drivers, we are not madly rushing around because we are here to see things :)

Oh, one more thing....people here don't seem to have respect for other people's property, either. In more than one case (my moto and someone else's moto) people don't seem to think twice about sitting on any motorbike that they feel like sitting on. Did I mention the Hayubasa in Mamallapuram? The owner had said that someone saw it, liked it, sat on it, heaved it up (it's a big bike :) and promptly dropped it, doing some damage to the plastics...all so the guy could have his mate take a photo! When we come out of the hotel people are sitting on our bikes all the time (the guy at the desk says they won't hurt it, they are watching them carefully!). They always seem to want to reset my trip meter.... :)

ok...rant off :)

Happy Valentines Day!!!!!