World renowned columnist Thomas Friedman recently quoted about India that if you want to understand the pulse of modern India then “shake a bottle of champagne and uncork it”. The reference obviously was to a ‘young’ and vibrant country with mile high aspirations and talent waiting to grab any opportunity that comes across. This is certainly true for bigger metros and in general for folks with access to best educational institutes and other avenues of social elevation. The India I visited in my last trip was the small town and hamlet version where more than 85% of India’s population lives and thrives. And of course this larger section of the Indian diaspora seems to have been left behind the general image of an IT savvy India with the best and brightest professionals to offer. They seem to have caught so much the same daily grind of life as they were ten years ago. Sure now every tom, dick and harry has a cell phone and doesn’t refrain from using it anytime and without any disregard to general public courtesy, the stuff that they seem to be talk about is unchanged. I spent a lot of time pondering over what India’s progress really means to the real common person in India and how does Friedman’s champagne theory applies to them. As I drove past India’s dusty Northern plains the very sights and smell makes you think of what this means to the larger Indian population.
Surely enough while driving through these plains one hits many railway crossings and as I waited and watched events unfold at one of these railway crossings, I was amazed how Friedman’s champagne theory is exemplified at the average crossing albeit not in the exact sense as he meant it. Before I get into the railway crossing, one has to understand the traffic rules, oh well the lack of it, when driving through most of India. Yes there are lanes, but no one drives within them; yes the roads are directional but is OK to drive in the wrong direction if it is the shortest path to your destination, yes there are traffic lights but people routinely jump red lights and seem to know when it is ‘safe’ to so. And just to be clear the “safety” I am referring here isn’t safety of folks inside the vehicle, safety usually refers to being safe to break a rule without getting ticketed. And this BTW, is for larger cities and metros (yes I am looking at you New Delhi). For other parts, the question isn’t of road rules the question is whether a road exists where one claims it to be. Unless of course you consider kilometers of moon craters as roadways! Roads that would classify as a single lane in the US being used practically as a four lane “free for all” in which faster vehicles are perennially locked in bypassing slower vehicles (and there are lots of these) while simultaneously avoiding being crash test dummies and dodging incoming traffic.
Anyways, back to the railway crossing. Before the gate closes, traffic flows in the same crazy order-in-chaosly manner. As soon as the gate closes, you could see the champagne starting to bubble. Folks with 2 wheelers, which is the majority vehicle type; bicycles, and low HP motor bikes start to duck under the single rod divider and start crossing on foot dragging their bikes with them. Now one has to understand that this isn’t a simple maneuver as it sounds; Bending to less than 3 feet height, while simultaneously holding on to bike in excess of 200 pounds, then bending that and dragging it along. Not to forget that the terrain of a railway crossing is basically tracks with rocks and tar patches, tough to drive over it normally. Sometimes people are trying to walk their bikes around the gates through shallow ditches. So many times have I seen people with bikes stuck in precarious positions; certainly a risk for their lives. And to think of it, per my observation, no one really seemed to save any meaningful time compared to if they waited.
Another thing that happens is that traffic that cannot get across through the gates, takes up the entire road space; vehicles lining up next to each other as in a grand prix race as if all that matters as soon as the gate opens is who can cross first. Now, obviously this will prevent incoming traffic to come across. Now what guys on one end forget is that the traffic on other end does the same and eventually when the gate does open there is undoubtedly a traffic jam that takes a while to clear. It’s funny that if everyone lined up in a disciplined order, everyone can get through very quickly than compared to this mad dash that ends up happening. This railway crossing brings out the general Indian psyche; everyone is trying to one up each other and get ahead of one another. While this is a good thing in general, the problem is in the lack of long term thinking much like the railway crossing, if all you care about is that no one else can get ahead of you when the gate opens then maybe you will get that, but everyone will get slowed down. On the other hand, if you allow someone to get ahead of you, you all can get out fast.
You can find this race to get ahead everywhere and at every walk of life. When we were lined up for security clearance before boarding a domestic flight in India, we had able bodies single twenty something blokes brushing and trying to get ahead of families with kids and older folks and do that with such normalcy and ease that it causes pain for someone like me who has stayed in the US long enough to routinely see people offering up seats and positions in line to people in need. Same thing happened to us again and again during this domestic flight, we were pushed and brushed in the check-in line, security clearance line, while boarding the bus that took us to the flight stairs. It’s hard to understand what these guys are trying to get to in this hurry. They aren’t going to get the best seats, the flight won’t start sooner, just because they get seated. Then why oh why so brazen disregard to common courtesies. Again, it’s this “I can’t let you get ahead of me” thought.
It is perhaps this “micro” competition that has led to the fact that India with some of the richest people in the world is also one of the worst when it comes to philanthropy and charity work. In the US, you could find philanthropy work done at all levels of society, whether it is Bill Gates committing most of his wealth to charity or an average neighbor volunteering money or services to a local charity. It’s hard to find anything close to this in India.
I hope that over time the bubbling champagne settles down to a well ordered flow that allows everyone to flourish together and that the general micro competition evolves into a process for collective improvement where it’s not important to prevent someone else to get ahead of you, rather has the person who gets ahead pull everyone along with us. As I sit in a posh open mall, I see kids begging for a living and polishing shoes while folks from one of the richest communities in the country walk past in their best, I help but wonder that this is indeed a bubbling champagne bottle; however this one is likely to burst and explode in your face if not handled carefully.
