The Q that never exists - Chennai Relief Disaster
It is sad that so many have died in the process of waiting to collect their relief dues couple of days back. The media as insensitive as ever has gone over board to describe the event in all gory details and the photos of the suffering have left many in the city depressed. The families deserve everyone's sympathy and every person responsible who could have averted this disaster needs to be punished (not merely suspended or transferred, the usual government ways of dealing with disaster).
But more important is the question of the civic responsibilities that each one of our city'zens' should ask themselves - do we know how to follow any rules in this city? the Q for instance in every urban centre. In Chennai the Q is non-existent. Recently the Sathyam Cinema announced that the Q is dead for booking tickets in their cinema hall. But, the Q in chennai is never born. In bus stands, in ration shops, in post offices, banks, supermarkets, in purchasing tickets, in railway stations, in airports, even in the automated teller machine (ATM) booths that line every main road in the city - wherever there needs to be a Q of people, the Chennai-ites have shown themselves to be ignorant of such civil behaviour. A typical Chennai-ite wants to either over take everyone before him to reach the counter or expresses such extreme curiosity in the nether portions of everyone in front that out of irritation they leave way for him. Such attitude may be considered bullying in any other part of the world, but, in Chennai a bully is someone who also would throw you physically out of the Q.
The railway stations have imposed several lines through which you can collect the ticket and seats to ensure that you rest at least till you reach a spot where you can get in. I noticed such an arrangement in the passport office too recently.
The large political gatherings, and also other public gatherings where much crowd is expected, barricades with casurina poles are erected much in advance to avoid any stampede.
The ATMs have self-locking doors that have long since lost the locking mechanism and in many parts of the city if another city'zen' were to decide to see what you are transacting and enters the ATM, you have no choice except to finish the transaction with the person breathing down your neck.
Telephone bill payments too have a similar fate, recently in one of the automated telephone bill paying centres, I absorbed that as soon as the watchman started explaining to an elderly person as to how to use the instrument, the rest of the crowd stepped out of the Q and started to crowd around the duo.
The Q in Chennai is considered the problem of the one who is regulating it and not the responsibility of the citize. How can a city cope with such a behaviour that cuts across all economic and social strata?
Would a government that announced every thatched hut in every school be pulled down after the Kumbakonam disaster follow the same example and currently announce that every school in the city at least should have a lesson thought on how to be part of a Q?
But more important is the question of the civic responsibilities that each one of our city'zens' should ask themselves - do we know how to follow any rules in this city? the Q for instance in every urban centre. In Chennai the Q is non-existent. Recently the Sathyam Cinema announced that the Q is dead for booking tickets in their cinema hall. But, the Q in chennai is never born. In bus stands, in ration shops, in post offices, banks, supermarkets, in purchasing tickets, in railway stations, in airports, even in the automated teller machine (ATM) booths that line every main road in the city - wherever there needs to be a Q of people, the Chennai-ites have shown themselves to be ignorant of such civil behaviour. A typical Chennai-ite wants to either over take everyone before him to reach the counter or expresses such extreme curiosity in the nether portions of everyone in front that out of irritation they leave way for him. Such attitude may be considered bullying in any other part of the world, but, in Chennai a bully is someone who also would throw you physically out of the Q.
The railway stations have imposed several lines through which you can collect the ticket and seats to ensure that you rest at least till you reach a spot where you can get in. I noticed such an arrangement in the passport office too recently.
The large political gatherings, and also other public gatherings where much crowd is expected, barricades with casurina poles are erected much in advance to avoid any stampede.
The ATMs have self-locking doors that have long since lost the locking mechanism and in many parts of the city if another city'zen' were to decide to see what you are transacting and enters the ATM, you have no choice except to finish the transaction with the person breathing down your neck.
Telephone bill payments too have a similar fate, recently in one of the automated telephone bill paying centres, I absorbed that as soon as the watchman started explaining to an elderly person as to how to use the instrument, the rest of the crowd stepped out of the Q and started to crowd around the duo.
The Q in Chennai is considered the problem of the one who is regulating it and not the responsibility of the citize. How can a city cope with such a behaviour that cuts across all economic and social strata?
Would a government that announced every thatched hut in every school be pulled down after the Kumbakonam disaster follow the same example and currently announce that every school in the city at least should have a lesson thought on how to be part of a Q?
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