Sharrayu Aroskar

A birthday start that I did not plan for. I was excited to celebrate this Birthday in India. All what you say its special. Now since it’s so much of a special day I wanted hit the gym before work. So I did a good and happy workout. I moved to the Rickshaw stand to take a Rickshaw home. I just said the destination name and the rickshaw started. I was on the phone with a friend. The whole ride was everything about my birthday, her boy friend etc. etc. 

I reached my destination and the meter said twenty seven rupees. In plain understandable Hindi I said the same. The driver demanded rupees thirty. Honestly or rather by GOD’s grace I earn enough to give away three bucks to a beggar without much reason or even leave it off at a vendor if he’s in crunch for some genuine change. I many a times do that. The only thing here was that I could not find a good enough reason to give away the three bucks. Why should I? I insisted that the driver take rupees twenty seven and leave. The driver said that he did not intend to give me a ride but did so because I was on the phone. The whole thing did not make much sense. I still insisted that he take rupees twenty seven as the meter demanded and leave. I mentioned that it’s my hard earned money and that I don’t give it away without reason. 

The driver shot back using explicit language, which implied that I earn money possibly by other means. I am a strong supporter of living a respectable life regardless of the gender, religion or nationality one comes from. In my head I thought, if this driver in his early forty’s can say this to me, if I leave him unanswered I’ll encourage him to say and do a lot more to someone who is less privileged in determination and resources than I am. I took my bags, got off the vehicle and dialed the police. The driver then claimed that I used explicit language against him in spite of the month of Ramzan. I am in midst of celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi too so this didn’t make much sense to me either. I insisted that he say that in front of the police.

Suddenly the driver had all the change he was refusing to give me earlier. The driver left. I cut the phone call and started the stride to floor seven. In my head I was agitated and angry that I had such a wild start on my birthday. 

I must say that this wasn’t the first argument that I have entered in past one year of my stay in Pune. I think there are rules set by the RTO and rickshaw drivers are required to abide by them under the states law. Almost none of the drivers in Pune are seen wearing a uniform or displaying a badge which he is supposed to. Ideally drivers are not supposed to charge random extra money. In my understanding the tariff rates are many times higher than the petrol cost price and incorporate the expense of a dry or without passenger journey back from the start point. Half return money is charged during random hours of the day when actually the legal time interval is between 12:00 a.m. to 5:00a.m. In case the passenger refuses to pay extra money the high handedness of the driver to bring in religion, festivals and attack the modesty of a woman passenger verbally is not only socially unacceptable but should be punishable under law. If I have experienced this in past one year, I am more than sure that the residents here have experienced it often. What surprises me is the cold nature of the RTO towards these offences. Why aren’t immediate help lines set up to complain about such incidences? Why isn’t enough action taken to curb this menace? Moreover what impression is the city leaving the visitors with? Travel in Pune and you are bound to be cheated? I as a responsible citizen refused to pay more than what was legally bound. I had a male driver talk to me in a disrespectful language. Though I have the vehicle number I refrained from loging a complaint as I am not too sure if he is the only bread winner in the family. More than that I know he is not the only one. He is among that larger population of rickshaw drivers who think laws are meant to be in books and the books are meant to hidden in pockets.

Can the RTO please clean this menace in Pune? Not too sure what is lacking. Is it the evidence or just the will?

I have been feeling insecure to travel by local trains everyday. I have to take the 8:14 a.m. fast from Kandivli and get off at Dadar. I don’t have a choice. I have to be at work by 9:30 a.m. if not, my boss will seek a replacement. Similar thoughts run through a working class Mumbaikar everyday. Traveling by local trains during the wee hours of morning is nothing but a war time exercise. An average traveler is scared for his life and safety. In 1853 British laid the first railway between Mumbai and Thane. They continued their own contribution until 1947. August 1947 we were “free”. After that I hear that the next major railway project was the Kokan railway sometime in later nineties or early twenties. The continued lethargy of the Congress berthed railway ministers is shameful. I say the Congress because they were in the office more than 90% of the time post independence and have shown a record of not learning from mistakes in many departments.

 Ever since I was a traveling student I have seen accidents and accident struck bodies waiting to be attended n platforms. This sight used to scare me. There was an instance when a woman passenger in my compartment had fallen off a running train and the rest of the passengers acted so used to the incident. I remember another shocking incident when in early hours of the morning a dead body or seriously injured one was loaded in a first class ladies compartment that was run over by the train I was traveling in. The women in the compartment were in a state of shock. I was going for my Engineering math I exam. I returned to India last year. Though being in Pune saves me a lot of this horror now, I do travel to Mumbai to visit my parents. On one such evening I went on Platform No.3 at the Dadar station. Like a normal Mumbaikar I was running to get the train on the platform while it was still. The moment I got off the bridge I saw the indicator was on Virar fast. I waited for the train to move. It didn’t for sometime. It was a usual 6:30 p.m. evening train. It was packed to its capacity and yet overflowing as a sign of careless and immune Indian railway system. Finally it did move for a distance of 2 feet and then suddenly everybody around the second class Men’s compartment yelled. Thankfully the motorman heard the cry and stopped the train or may be it was some sensitive passenger who pulled the chain. One someone was another victim. He had fallen in the gap between the compartment footboard and railway platform. The platform no.3 gathered around the spot for sometime. Something happened between then. I had no guts to see what that was but I am sure it was distorted human body in blood pool surrounded of some spectators and witnesses to the incident.

 And I said to myself, this still happens in India. Life in Mumbai has become so cheap that we need to cut throats to get to our destinations on time. The under built platforms lack of trains with people traveling on footboards and train tops are still a reality. People are traveling in utmost inhuman conditions and I do not see any human rights agitation. Politicians like Govinda and Sanjay Nirupam have made train travel an election issue and let some more people to be run over and entangled in wheels that are so to say the life lines of Mumbai.

It shameful that an average Mumbaikar sees one of these incidents almost everyday and yet there has been no change in the system. I then find what Raj Thackeray says is not completely wrong. The system in Maharashtra has allowed so many illegal immigrants to build slums and throng in the name of votes that the system is not ready to take the excess burden in every sense. Every resource is in shortfall and people are struggling for a piece. Every pre-election we again look at our “promising politicians” to make a change. Shameful enough, Sanjay Nirupam who was accidentally elected from the Mumbai North constituency, thanks to MNS again, did not utter a word when Mamta Di forgot to mention enough for Mumbai local travelers. Mind you he had promised this in his election campaign.

As I continue to write for this cause, I wonder how many more lives will this system need to make a change and get us to safe and human traveling conditions. We little realize that the travel by Mumbai local trains during the wee hours of morning breaches our basic human rights of right to move free and safe in our own country.

I go to swimming regularly these days. For past two days, being on a medical leave I have chosen to attempt the 5:00 p.m. batch escaping the 6:00 a.m. morning chill. It has been an empty week so to say. I didn’t have much to do as such. A pressure free life sometimes leaves a vacuum and a strong urge to fill it with something concrete and impacting. I have been looking for ways around that I could be of help and be that impact I was looking to be. Time and again after returning from United States I have a growing feeling within that my countrymen do not feel empowered. They do not believe in the system and its power to bring about the change.

While I was in the ladies changing room I spotted a woman complaining about her daughter’s admission. This happened in a city that is known to be “the mother of educational institutes”. I was shocked and surprised. I approached her for a reason. What she mentioned was what I had heard before. What I knew today was that the problem was affecting a vast majority and the gangrene was wide spread.

Few days ago I was chatting with my neighbor who mentioned about “middlemen educationalist”. Till then I had heard the term “middlemen” prominently in real estate and prostitution business. I was agitated and helpless at the same time. This is the country that I want to raise my kids in and this is the country I look to educate my kids in. Why on this earth do I need to feed the middlemen to get this through?

There is a convent school in Viman Nagar, Pune, MH, India. This is run by the “missionaries”. It is an ICSE board school. Parents who wish to acquire admission to their wards in this school are known to religiously visit the Principal’s office for Lower K.G. admissions. The watchman or the attendant refuses to allow the meeting either by saying that the Principal is not available or admissions are full. There are some brokers or middlemen who operate on behalf of the school authorities. These men/women are then approached by needy parents. They are then given the “rate” or “cost” of admission which is in form of donations to the school authorities. This amount varies from 75 Thousand to 1.25 Lakhs. Parents who can afford this can wish to get the admissions rest are left to cry in silence over their helplessness to provide good and affordable education for their kids. One like the woman in the ladies room of the swimming pool I go. She was crying in silence away from her daughter’s knowledge in helplessness. This is the case of many middleclass parents in and around the Viman Nagar area. They cannot afford the “donation” through middlemen that the convent schools ask.

There are a few convent schools in this area that are graded as “good” by the localites.The fee structure of these schools is also very intense. It varies from 35 to 50 Thousand rupees per year. We all know the situation of government and municipal schools in this country. In light of this, isn’t it the responsibility of the local government to control this menace and ensure affordable basic quality education in this country? Shouldn’t the government nail down people to proliferate these malpractices impacting a common man’s house. I was ashamed to hear this in a city like Pune. It goes without saying that this could be the situation elsewhere as well.

Being from a middle class family and background I know the helplessness that parents feel when they have to say “No” to something that they know is requisite for their child’s growth but they can’t afford it. I can imagine the assault on the child’s mind at that tender age where he/she does not know what is happening and doesn’t even know how to fix it. At the onset of his first steps in the education system or rather the country’s system, what the society and the system teaches him/her is to shell out money to “illegal middlemen” to get tasks done. These are the kids that we say will be our country’s future. Would we still expect a clean and non-corrupt system after 50 years? Do we still expect things to change years later? Do we still expect a government clerk to refuse under table money when he has to pay huge donations to middlemen to fetch quality primary and secondary education in this country 50 years after independence?

If I as a local citizen of Pune could sense this in my 9 months of stay here, I am wondering what is the State Congress-NCP government doing for ten years now? Haven’t the account auditors questioned the Lakhs of rupees that the convent schools are extracting from the parents like extortion money? How much more time does the state government require to make quality and affordable education available to citizens of this country and that to in a city that is known to be the “mother queen” of educational institutes.