I have been living in Bangalore for around 4 years now and I
think it is Bangaloreans (people who live here by choice or otherwise)
should make a conscious effort to behave themselves a little more. A city which
wants to call itself cosmopolitan but doesn’t have the behavior required of a
shanty town, shouldn't aspire big. Behave before you get smacked.
Public Transport:
Public transport of a city is a measure of its politeness. Buses
are meant to ply on time, stop exactly at the places designated as bus stops. Most
importantly stop at red signals and adhere to traffic signal rules. Do not
block the free left turn though you want to go straight ahead. It is a known
fact that if a Moffusil Transport Bus stops at a red signal, most others
vehicles too tend to follow the same. Once the metro trains start plying all
across the city, the buses will become mere feeder services to the metro and
then for them to compete with the Metro will be tough. So when you have the
time, build up your reputation. Make it a service, people would want to use.
Most autorickshaw drivers are con men. They con the innocent
people in day light. Most of the times they do not pick up fares because they
are not going in the same direction as the passenger. I have lived in Pune and
Mumbai and if any auto guy does this there, they face severe consequences.
Few Bangalore auto guys tamper with their meters and make
them go faster; Take longer routes to make more money; pick up fights over the issue of change money.
Though there are help lines to try and resolve this, I think hardly anyone uses
them. Some one needs to pick up responsibility to change this. Let us not
forget auto guys need the money and not the passengers.
Dumping of daily waste:
All of us complain the moment the locality is not cleaned for more than 2 days or the daily waste is not cleared. But have you ever walked over to the nearest garbage bin, yes the same place where the stray dogs have a party, to throw the waste from your house on such days? Nope. We rather let it be on our compound walls, or dump it in the vacant site next door. Bangaloreans behave yourselves. That vacant site you dump your daily waste in, is not your father’s property.
Road Behavior:
Bangaloreans are always in a rush to get somewhere. Lanes
are merely stripes painted on the roads and traffic signals are just waste of
time. A true Bangalorean according to me has been taught that Red, Amber or
Green all mean the same, “Go”. Now to this people who have been taught, Red is
Stop and Green is Go might take an offence and abuse you. Bangaloreans you
deserve this abuse.
If I see my signal says Go and yours say Stop and you drive
in my way … don’t expect pleasantries from me. I will stand there, abuse you
and fight you if it needs to be and will take you down. Remember that.
Also let me tell you, that if honk at me with 10 seconds
left on the countdown clock when all of us have waited for a 110 seconds
already, I ain’t budging buddy. If you don’t want to get smacked either ways,
my advice to you is stay where you are and do not honk.
Service Sector:
One advice to the random dude, who’s job is to serve Idly Sambar
to the customers at one of the thousand local Darshinis or similar hotels
across the city, be polite. If you are giving out the Idly Sambar, there is no
need to think of yourself as a descendent of Goddess Annapoorna. The customer pays and is asking what he wants. It is his right. You misbehave with them, they
stop coming to your place and by word of mouth all the people close to them
stop it. It is your loss not his. So behave yourself.
