Our roads and our choices ….

India grows and develops. There is sign of feverish activity and movement in every turn of the road. The road is possibly the most important thing that claims pride of place in the development effort of the nation. Roads spell access, energy spells production and lifestyle and both don't come cheap. And together they represent infrastructure development. Ports and airports come next on the list.

It may be important to ask whom is this development for? It may be too easy to say 'for the whole nation'. A closer examination may reveal some disconcerting facts. Let us start with cities and small towns. India is producing more cars than ever each year and 2 wheelers. All consume diesel or petrol, a non renewable resource that is dying out, rapidly. India, as a symbol of its development makes it easy for anyone with a bank account to acquire a vehicle and pay for it slowly over years. The financing mechanism is good for banks and for vehicle producers and certainly makes things accessible. Therefore more production, more consumption and greater mobility, and the non renewable national resource consumed at greater rate than ever before.

If the resource belongs to all then should not one who does not have access to vehicles have a say in how it is used? The road is similarly a public property. Should not all road users have a say in how it is used. I am sure many of us have wondered on seeing large numbers of vehicles parked on public roads. Does the road belong to the person, agency whose vehicle is parked on it? Buses are all parked in their depots and most apartments have parking spaces for vehicles. But today with wide runaway access to finance who checks if the owner has private space to park his personal possession. The main roads get choked if vehicles are parked, and so they are cleared, even if ineffectively, by police authorities. This puts pressure on side roads, where there is no regulation except the 'No parking' sign in front of gates. Soon habit decides the parking spaces, and shopkeepers decide which spaces are theirs. And the vehicles are getting bigger, and more space is needed for parking. And where a large SUV or a van or a luxury vehicle is parked there is less space for the others.

The ones who suffer most are the ones who run their vehicles on renewable bio energy, the pedestrians and the cyclists. The pavements do not exist on side roads and are reduced to apologies on main roads. The pedestrian is reduced to an abject person, scurrying for cover from the unleashed hounds, watching the road, the uneven pavement and the signal, all at the same time. The cyclists also have to run an obstacle course when on a road, dangerously moving to the centre of the road, whenever there is a vehicle parked. Should a speeding motorcycle brush him / her it is quite clear who is in the wrong and who will not only get injured, but also abused.

Who asked the pedestrian or those with cycles what the roads should be like? Once a car manufacturer advised the Government to improve roads to have 'world class cars'. The road is a public resource, built on public money, should not the pedestrian be cared for, and the cyclist? Or is the road the hidden subsidy to auto industry to sell vehicles with policy blindness towards egality and justice?

The metaphors of the roads are even more interesting, though offering an unflattering view of human beings and our society in the 21st century. For instance, there is lawlessness at each queue, and a sleight of hand, tricks to get ahead. If there is a long queue of vehicles, there will surely be those who will squeeze on the left between or over the pavement and others who will go right to the front on the right on the wrong side of the road. India's drivers are surely restless to get ahead, get on! And it does not matter if you drive a moped or motor cycle, a small car of a premium brand SUV. It is the driver who needs to get ahead, as soon as possible. This approach turns all other road users, not into partners but adversaries. The one who is ahead is someone who is 'blocking you'. The one who does not give way is an enemy!

It may be interesting to remember that India is reeling under scams, in other words 'ill gotten gains' defying frameworks of law and decency. Under law people are supposed to have equal rights. Under decency, one shares and makes way for another using one's judgement and graciousness. Public life at every turn seems afflicted and it is seen on the roads as well. Who has not seen a speeding vehicle not giving way to a bewildered child trying to cross the road, or an elder bent person, on our city roads!

I am sure the people who make laws must have asked if private transport should be the priority investment or public transport? The ills of runaway private transport have hit a vast nation like USA with 3 times the land India has and ⅓ rd population. Is our vision of a good society driven by the short adventure of 500 years of USA? Or do we have a deeper history, a more caring understanding of our society?

Has the metaphor of war and collateral damage overtaken other metaphors, those of coexistence and peaceful living together? The sorrow of those who are part of the collateral damage will surely speak one day, may be sooner than later. The defenceless and the voice denied, do find expression, as Kabir says…

as I walk past people ....

Today is Deepawali, a day of celebration with sweets, new clothes and sharing. A day also of noise and mindless consumption. Chennai, Tamilnadu, is much afflicted by vector borne diseases. On the one hand there are vast number of people living in small tenements lining the banks of the Cooum and Buckingham Canal, and then there are those who have more permanent dwellings. I find it difficult to sleep with mosquitoes and wonder how the many sleep, those cannot go beyond the reach of mosquitoes. I see signs of celebration at the doorsteps of the small temporary homes with little or no sanitation. I see the same signs, of kolams at the doors of the more secure homes.
There is the grandfather or grandmother playing with a small child and there are shouts of children. Vast disparities in access, resources and comfort. All human, but some with so much more, and many with so little, hardly anything! I cannot help thinking, "Is the best we could manage as a race, a society?" One reads of the transition in China. Finally it is official - corruption afflicts China. Everything from appointment to Govt offices to contracts for infrastructure has a price. Princelings rule a vast nation where the disparities between the haves and have nots has grown 68% in the past decade. I wonder what thoughts go through the political minds, in the states and at the Centre in India. Some glee, "We are not alone!" Some philosophy, "There is no other way! The wheel of karms cannot be denied!" Some shamefaced smiles, "Just when Anna Hazare and Kejriwal have been hounding us, we just needed this to highlight our own shameful corruption!"
The farmers in Vidharbha will not get direct respite by way of support for agriculture. It has to come via subsidy to fertilizer companies. The farmer will not get enough life support to grow food for the nation, but a Vadra will receive 68 Cr loan from DLF (interest free). If I need to open an account in a neighbourhood bank, not only do I need to submit all manner of proof, but a foreign bank will facilitate some Indians to open bank accounts in foreign countries. Not only will small fry be hauled over the coals for small economic crimes, the big cats will be warned by eminent ministers and let off with low taxes and no slur to their names.
It is now official, not from the East but Obama's West. The rich have to pay higher taxes. Surely In India the weathy must be thinking, "Thats what you think! We have ingenuity on our side and it will be at least another decade before the tide changes here.