The Q mentality

Wow, the first post of this year. Had completely forgotten that i had not posted even one blog this year. And what made me to post this? The same old too cliché topic, problems that our country face.

I was waiting in the gas station to get the tyre pressure checked. It is quite common to see that two-wheelers want to get their bike's tyre pressure checked first whenever there are 4 wheelers waiting in the queue. "Our's just two tyres ree.... your's 4 tyres... what??? "people would grumble when the car owner insists on following FCFS (first come first serve) rule. A typical indian would get "adjusted" to these sort of things after experiencing it for one or two times. So is the case with me. I didnt protest when a couple of 2-wheelers jumped the queue, overtook my car and insisted on getting their vehicles attended before the cars -including mine - standing in the queue.

So after attending to 2 - 3 such q-jumpers, the guy was about to attend to my car when out of blue a biker came from nowhere. It was quite natural for any normal-sane guy to tell point blank that the car deserved the turn since it was waiting for quite long time and the same the station guy also did. He then requested the biker to move ahead a bit so that the car can come in front and stand within the length of the air-pressure pipe. This infuriated the biker like anything who took it as an insult. He sped off from the place after shouting at the guy his heart content. I was amused.

I was reading a book called "Jack patel's Dubai dreams". The book started with the writer, a NRI, saying that if there is one thing he hates most about india, it is the lack of ethics in following queue rules which is contrasting to how it is in UK. I first attributed it to the population explosion. But slowly i learnt it is not the only reason. Recently there was a record breaking longest traffic jam in China outsied Beijing. The traffic had piled upto 300Km in length. But surprisingly, not a single soul tried to jump the lane or resorted to any dirty-shortcuts to come out of the jam. The traffic was held up in that situation for quite a few days!!

Compare this with our fellow drivers on Indian roads. Recently I was driving in Indiranagar 100 Ft road and had stopped in one traffic signal at a junction where 4 road meet. When the signal turned green, i tried to go straight. Suddenly a Car which was on Left lane, suddenly took a steep right turn with great speed. I applied the brakes hardly and was too taken aback to even react at that stupid car driver.

It is not limited to roads alone. People resort to dirty-tricks in any q that you see in any corner of the country. If someone asks me what is the one thing that you think is common among the people of entire India, i will say the mentality that we all have w.r.t  q-jumping-tricks. Be it temples, ticket counters in cinema halls etc. People want to break the rules with unique dirty tricks. I think they derive the joy out of it. When a person gets the task done before those who were standing in the line for more length of time than him, he feels great about himself. He is now owner of a great success story involving himself which he treasures and shares with his friends, family and even with unknown people if required. "Dukh bantne se kam hoti hai aur khushiyan bantne se badthi hai... " Paresh Rawal says in the epic movie "hera pheri". So this chap who defeated others in the line, has to share his story of "Success" so that he can derive more joy. Whatever time he saved in his life by jumping the q line, he will invest that in going around the town talking about his success.

Off late, i feel that the educated people are resorting to this more than the so called illiterate/less-educated ones. Just a few days before I was standing in q to get the tickets for the movie "Kai Po Che" which was being screened in our office Multiplex. In that one hour i was standing in the q, I was witness to so many dirty-tricks being played by so many "Educated fellas" that it left me ashamed that such people are all the part of same company that I am also in. You should see the smile on their face when they succeed in their attempt to squeeze into the line. This in spite of the fact that there were nearly 10 security people deployed to manage the rush. Having the security people to manage us itself has to be a shame on our part. Do we really need them to help us remember the mannerisms and to remain honest in the q line??

Compare this with the q lines in front of Govt fair-price shops (which normally we call as society or ration shop) in smaller towns and villages. People follow such good mannerisms while in the q. When we were in Chickballapur, there was one such shop in front of our house. Once in a month, the kerosone oil would be distributed to the people. One should see the discipline that they follow in maintaining the Q. No security, no police to help them maintain the integrity of the line. The long serpentine q used to reach till the end of the long road. Still nobody dared to play any tricks. And like the cinema tickets, even the supply of oil used to be limited. Hardly half of the people in line would get their quota of the oil. Those who didnt get today, have to come tomorrow and stand in the q once again. And they used to come if required.

Tailpiece : I didnt start writing this post as the last and final part of my "Time, Technology and generation" series. But when i was done and was reviewing it once before posting, i felt it has got relation with the topic coincidently. With all the advancement in technology, we tend to get everything as fast as we could and end up trading the good manners and honesty in bargain i think. Recently while i was waiting for my turn in Aadhar enrollment q, i was witness to one more such incident where a mother of 2 children used child-sentiment to get turn ahead of others with emotional melodrama. This is where it starts i felt. Parents and teachers, who are supposed to teach  good principles in children, end up doing entirely opposite.