I tuned into to Radio City, one of the very few non irritating radio stations, in an otherwise long list of chaotic radio stations in Bangalore.
I looked out of the window, and paratas were already being served by the guy in the small shanty hotel, who used to be kneading the dough when i passed by everyday.
And then as i turned to look right, i saw something that would, on any other day not have interested me. There were three little girls standing, all in their white school uniforms. So what was so uncommon about that ? Nothing much, except that they were trying to cross the road, and, well, they were standing right in the middle of the road. The signal had just switched to green, and all the vehicles had started moving. As my bus moved on, away from the little girls, i turned back to watch.
What i saw was really shocking, the three little girls were stranded in the middle of the road, between the two lanes of vehicles, both moving faster with every second. Trucks, cars, bikes, even bullock carts, went past them, not one person slowed/stopped to let the kids cross the road. It went on for sometime, every new second must have felt like hell for the kids standing there.
My bus slowed down (yes, that is how the K R Puram Jam works, you have just about started, when u realize u have to stop). As i kept watching, i was relived to see one lady in a car, finally stop, and let the kids cross the road.
I was wondering how insensitive all of us are or have become. We could not stop for a moment to let the kids cross the road. All of us, across the spectrum, from truck drivers to sophisticated IT professionals (in their swanky cars) to all the heroes on their bikes.
Are we one of the worst possible civilized (if at all) societies ?
The guy in the picture, Enrique Penalosa, is a former mayor, now a consultant on urban vision and strategy, credited with transforming the city of Bogota, in Colombia. He says:
"The single biggest difference between the infrastructure of an advanced nation and a backward one is its footpaths, not its highways"
I think, he puts it very aptly, it is how we keep our footpaths (a lot of our the roads don't have one), treat pedestrians and cyclists that will reflect on our "urban" values, if at all we have any, and not how many expressways and flyovers we build.
