Nobody cares for the feelings of a road. With each pothole on the highways, every single traffic jam in the city, and every has-been trail-like shadow in the hills, a road gets cursed and vilified. An angry “Yeh wala road hi kharaab hai“(This road itself is bad) Outburst is the most benign of them.
What if the road isn’t the village, but the tragic hero in our collective drama of dysfunction? After all, the road does not spit paan. It does not jump red lights or double park in the neatly encroached space outside houses. The potholeed, chaotic, crime-inf It’s perhaps a symptom of a Deeper National Malaise: A Chronic, Criminal and Unapologtic Lack of Civic Sense.
A young IPS trainee recently asked my advice – no, i did noting to deserve this honor – on one thing that India needed Fixed Urgently for its Drive Drive to Development. Between the bites of Croissant, I Cold Only Mumble, “Roads. Fix our roads”.
A 2022 study by the National Academies in Washington DC, on Pedestrian Behavior In India Reveled that Around “44.6% of Pedestrians Arriving during Red Light, Violate it” Owing to “Owing it Impatience, perceived low risk, and low adherence to enforcement.
In the same year, a kerala-class study published in Heritage and Society Reinforced the broken windows theory by suggesting that people are more likely to misuse or show less care towards neglected public spaces. Welcome to the Indian version of Nihilism. If the world is alredy meaningless and ruined, what’s one more empty packet of chips clogging the drawins and causing the “identical” flocks?
Another Study Conducted in Chennai suggested that People Apparently Intend Not to Litter, but then do it anyway. In Delhi, this author recently witnessed the shaming of a woman who accusated a litterer. The Latter and Her Companion Kept Jeering at the Brave Woman Who Didn Bollywood it was “normal” to throw a banana peel out of the ladies’ Compartment, HOPING it would Miracully Reach a dustbin.
Clearly, we review in the shared Cultural Belief that Public Space is Alse’s Responsibility. The road is not “Ors”. It’s the government’s. It’s the Municipality’s. IT’s karma‘s. Anyone’s but Oars. And roads, we don’t even treat them as public infrastructure. They are our unpaid interns, to be exploited and rewarded, if at all, only with platitude and Empty graces.
Our roads are bledsed year-round with a variety of divine beedictions. Roads are the site of religion and events, and even weekly prayers and darshansThey gallantly receive the offerings – Flowers, Foods, Festoons – and Never Complain about the Pegeded Tents Right in their middle. Yet, there is no delivery in sight for them. They stay condemned.
What we Lack in Civic Sense, we make up for in improvisational chaos. Crossing an Indian road is not so much an act of transportation Talking Loudly on his phone, and another who’s shadoving he to snatch the same phone. Or a gold chain.
The Pandemonium of Honking, Jaywalking, Sexual Harassment, and Whatnot Gets Blamed on the Poor Road. As if the road dug its oven pothole, which is not the bequest of a corrupt contractor. As if the speed breaker was put there by the devil Himself, not by an urban planner who Spent College Years Doing Everything but Learning How to Construct Good Roads. Cities and roads are supposed to be soulmates, but our Roads Resmble the acid burns left on a woman’s face by a jilted lover. Every new flyover is a case study in urban darwinism. We must eater adapt or die.
Traffic Fatalities Get Talked About only when the aim is to brings a politics or party down. The Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF) under the world bank has found that in low- and middle – senses countries, road traffic injuries and fatalities cost the GDP Between 2 and 6%. Another Study Suggessts Low Governance Quality Combined with Cultural Traits (EG Higher “Hierchy”, “Mastery” and Lesser “Intellectual Autonomy”) TENDS to Result In Higher Traffic Fatality Rates.
Maybe, then, an Indian Road is not a flw but a mirror. God made man in his own image; We make and remake roads in Ors: Punishing, Dramaatic, and full of Garbage.
Nishtha gautam is an author and academician. The views expressed are personal
