Come on Bangalore!

It's been raining very heavily the past few days. Roads which are relatively new are flooded, causing traffic jams for kilometers. Bangalore doesn't look or feel like an I.T. city. It's more a cloud of chaos.

I received an SMS from Hutch earlier:

Message from Bangalore City Traffic Police :: Heavy rains have resulted in traffic congestion. Please use the roads only if it is very necessary.

They HAD to send this out to everyone.

In Bangalore, "necessary" means shopping malls, the movies, fancy restaurants and nightclubs.

They're hoping that "very necessary" drives the message home.

Refused a plastic bag

I got caught in the rain this evening. Totally unexpected. It was nice & hot in the day, and I thought it was alright to walk home from work.

It would have have been a different story if I had walked home from work without going anywhere else. But I did. I had 36 rupees left, and I wanted to buy 'pal-gova' (sweets made from milk) for Dahlia. She loves them, and I had tasted these at the place where I buy lunch.

I went to Karthik Sweets, and asked him how much I could get for 36 rupees. He said '200 grams'. I said, "Alright, give me 200 grams".

"Why would I need money? I'm walking home anyway".

I paid for the sweets and proceeded on my way (without a paise). I was approaching the overhead bridge on 100ft. Road, when it started drizzling. I made some calculations and thought I would make it at least to Irene's place. But then, I didn't want to impose, i.e. I didn't feel completely comfortable. I upped my pace but the rain beat me in that aspect, and within a minute, it was raining VERY heavily. One of those heavy sudden summer rains.

"Alright", I thought. Nevermind me getting wet, my books shouldn't. I'd get a plastic bag from that shop I see, and use it to cover my books. I approached the shop, and as you can expect, it was crowded at the counter (with people taking shelter from the rain). There were some customers, of course. Let me describe the shop first.

It was a corner-shop, meaning it has 2 counters - one facing the main road where I was, and one facing the side-street perpendicular to the main. It's a typical corner store, with counters on both sides, and a narrow passage somewhere for the workers to go through. Customers not allowed. We stand outside, and the shopkeepers hand products and take money over the counter. You probably know what I'm talking about.

Coming back to our story, the main counter was crowded. It was also manned by a serious-looking man with a moustache. I peeked over the counter and saw that the side counter was manned by a kid. "I'll have a better chance of getting a plastic bag from the kid", I thought. And so I made my way to the side counter.

Unfortunately for me, the kid suddenly became busy with something else, and I eventually was noticed by Moustache-man. He came to me and I asked him for a plastic bag to cover my books; and I showed him the books I was carrying. He raised a finger, to indicate one, and I said "Yes, one is enough". He took a white plastic bag and handed it to me. I was about to slip my books into the bag when he showed me his index finger again, but this time with the words "One rupee".

I told him, "I don't have any money". He reached out for the plastic bag and took it away.

Yes, my first reaction was that of disbelief. My second was of disgust. My third was to walk away and look for other shelter (not his shop). My points to note :

First, his defence..

1. I wouldn't blame him for not believing that I didn't have any money. I mean that is something you hardly come across. Even beggars have money! But he didn't know what I did prior to approaching him, so no surprise. He probably thought I was lying.

Now, his prosecution..

1. A plastic bag does not cost more than 10 paise. That's one-tenth of a rupee. But he probably would have incurred huge losses if he gave me the bag for free.

2. My sister and I have been taught for as long as we can remember, to respect books. If we don't want a book, we don't destroy/mutilate it; we give it away (in our case, we usually keep it anyway). But this incident was enough to tell me that not necessarily everyone, even here in "reverance-zealous" India, respects books.

3. Whatever happened to plain kindness?

Why bother? Why care?

I went to a show called 'Sunday Jam' last night. It's a gathering of bands who sign up for free to play 2-3 songs on stage. Good for exposure, good for gathering experience of playing on stage. There's nothing like playing in front of an audience. Quite a thrill.

You can learn more about 'Sunday Jam' on the 'Freedom Jam' website.

When we arrived, a band called 'Ek' were playing Hindi songs. I don't understand Hindi, but I enjoyed the songs. They were good, and the audience liked them. We had 'Altered Scales', with a drummer who played a very good drum solo in the middle of an improvisational jam. What was amazing was that he must have been at least 60!

The incident begins when Melizma is on stage. They were a trio which played melodic metal. A minute into their 3rd song, I heard a yell behind me. Not surprising, because lots of people were shouting and whistling. But this sounded different, and I turned around to see, not 5 feet from me, a guy on the ground, all curled up. At first, no one knew what happened, and no one reacted. It took us a good 10 seconds before realizing this guy was NOT play-acting, drunk, or high on weed. Santhosh (a former colleague and friend) was apparently with him, along with 4 others. He and I approached this guy. I was just plain scared; I had no idea what happened. Then we saw it.. the shaking, the clenched fists, and the foaming of the mouth. He was having the fits.

A crowd quickly formed around us. Santhosh was trying to keep his friend down. Sushanto gave me his bike keys, and I took my house keys out, and passed them to Santhosh, to place in his hand. Somebody in the crowd took his sandal off and held it to the guy's nose. Gopal (the organizer) was there and asked what that was for. The man replied, "For the leather". Apparently, the smell of leather is supposed to help suppress fits.

Lots of people had gathered by now, and the guy wasn't shaking so much. Melizma was still playing, despite knowing something wasn't right - we were right in front of them. Siddarth came to the mic and asked if there was a doctor in the audience, and that someone needed medical treatment. 2 elderly ladies appeared and asked to push him over to his side. This was suggested to us by a kid nearby, but they didn't listen to him then. Someone started getting a car ready to take him to the hospital. The poor guy had gone all limp.

Eventually, his friends (including Santhosh) brought his to the hospital. The crowd dispersed, and we got back to watching the rest of the show. But my mind wasn't on the show anymore. Why?

ONE..

I had given Sushanto's bike keys to Santhosh, but not got them back. I called him, and asked him to check his pockets, and his friends to check their pockets, but he said no, the keys weren't with them.

Later in the evening, I approached Gopal, and asked him to help me make an annoucement to see if anyone had the keys. It turned out that someone gave them too Siddarth, because Gopal came bouncing up to us with a smile and handed us the keys. Whew.. Take about relief!

TWO..

I have learnt to accept the ugly fact that many Indians here simply do NOT care about anything but themselves. This is everywhere, all over the world, but I can TELL YOU that I've not seen it more anywhere else. Take littering for example. People here will think NOTHING of throwing their rubbish in public - out of a car window, onto the floor of a bus or train, on the road, in schools, workplaces, ANYwhere. Anywhere but their home. We Indians are especially particular about personal hygiene and cleanliness. We have to wash our butts; toilet paper won't do. Maybe it's the climate, but we feel the need to bath quite often. We would NEVER spit inside our house, but we won't think twice about that on the streets. We keep our homes nice and clean, but couldn't care less about how it looks outside. As long as he/she is fine, healthy, comfortable and satisfied, there is absolutely NO need to bother about what happens around them. They don't have to care about the consequences of their actions if it doesn't affect them directly (or immediately).

Every man for himself.

Selfish.

What made me think of all this? This lack of care for others? Indians are said to be hospitable people, but then I wouldn't let that get to their heads. EVERY country has hospitable people when viewed from a foreigner's perspective. But of course! Why would you want to show your true (ugly) self when you stand a chance to make a good impression, AND on a foreigner??? After all, we all know it's not difficult to maintain a 'good' image for a short time, and we don't usually interact with foreigners for very long.

I find the Indian-white people relationship very interesting, and I will write about this on a future post.

Melizma, the band. They kept on playing while this guy lay on the ground, shaking from the fits. I don't know much about fits, but I do know anything could trigger it. I will not be wrong in saying that the extremely LOUD volume 'may' have triggered this. We were, after all, sitting right in front of huge amplifiers.

Regardless of what the cause was, I think it would only have been sensible to stop playing. All through the commotion of tending to this man, we had to put up with loud, loud music. Melizma can say what they like. I'll say, "It did NOT help".

I've always thought good of Siddarth, being a funny fellow that he is. But I was disappointed to see that he did not stop them from playing; even when he did try to call attention to us over the loud music.

And last but not least, our dear sound engineers who were sitting RIGHT BEHIND us, i.e. the incident took place right in front of them, in front of their mixer-desk. They could have reduced the overall volume, not cut it, if the amateur performance was so important.

Overall, a lack of compassion. Melizma must have been at a risk of losing millions if they stopped playing, being as professional as they are. Or perhaps, they imagined themselves in Woodstock, so people collapsing on the ground wasn't really a big deal. A pat on the back for Siddarth for putting the continuity of his Sunday Jam show before everything else. Why spoil the performance for some guy who collapsed, right?

Perhaps this is how things are. How they are. Everywhere, everyday, we see it. Take a walk outside for half an hour and you see it. But I've also learnt something else. There is no pointing this out, protesting, asking why this happens, or trying to convince them that things could be done a better way. Most people were born here, they grew up here, spent most or all of their lives here. Saying they are used to it would be incorrect. They see this as THE WAY to go about life. Every action which jumps out at me, which just spells 'wrong' is perfectly normal, acceptable and unquestionable for locals.

No, I am not ungrateful, or one who's constantly complaining about these things. I am Indian, and my family is here. I have spent the last 6 years of my life here. I started my working life here. We are progressing rapidly, no doubt about that - this IT company, that BPO, software, garments, food, tourism, industries.. You name it, we have it, and we're growing. Attitudes remain the same. If anyone asks why we aren't growing as much as we should, this is why. If anyone asks why companies are looking for other places to set up shop, this is why. If anyone asks why we face so many questions when applying for a normal tourist visa to most countries, this is why.

I am not generalizing this onto the Indian people. I can't and won't do that because I do know some wonderful people here in India. Some are neighbours, some colleagues and even some shopkeepers. :-)

This blog is meant to be a channel for me to say what I think about what I see here. That's all.