Pleasures and Perils – In India it is only Perils

I have recently read the article written by Sailaja, USA, my sister, on Pleasures and perils of Technology.  After I read it, I started thinking about the situation in India. The first part of her article reflects similar situation which we are facing in India also. We also have strict rules against using cell phones while driving.  But the problem is about the implementation only.  We still see so many drivers talking on their mobiles while driving which not only puts them to danger but other drivers as well as pedestrians in danger.  Not only drivers, we have seen several pedestrians using phones while walking and crossing the road as well.  They don’t realize how difficult it is for a driver to apply a sudden break to avoid a collision.  We cannot make a complaint to anyone. By chance if a police man catches some such driver, instead of giving that person a chalan (ticket in American English) he will quietly pocket a hundred or two hundred rupees and puts a full stop. The culprit is also happy – instead of paying a 500 or thousand rupees fine he has just done with the loss of hundred or two hundred bucks!  And he walked off scot free!  What did we all do ten years ago when cell phones were not so much in vogue?

About the second incident.   My hats off to the American police. No I am not talking about the technology advances.  I am only thinking of their  efficiency in retrieving a lost item.  Three car loads of police to retrieve an IPAD worth just $500 which will be around 16 to 20 K (thousands) rupees in Indian currency!  In India if your house is robbed and you have lost anything between a lakh to almost a crore of rupees worth of items and jewellery and lodged an FIR at your nearby police station, all you get is a constable wielding his lathi, roaming rounding the house and disturbing your peace expecting you to feed him with sweets, snacks and drinks every time he visits you. And the result – you don’t get back even one pearl out of all that you have lost.  Our police can only become fatter, with beer bellies day by day.  Can you spot one American cop with even an ounce of extra fat on his body?  And our police? I am ashamed even to think of them.  It looks like our police force is employed only to protect the politicians and not the public.  

 

Our politicians, senior officials and civil officers make trips abroad with the tax payers’ money to ‘study’ their systems. What good is that when they don’t implement what they have learnt?  Unless the whole system drastically changes this country will not improve and the common man has to suffer forever. 

Vijaya Murthy (Jijji), 

Visakhapatnam