Push Push and away!

*Shudder* Pssssssssssssssssst *bump* tchang *shudder* ssssssssssssssss….

Very characteristic sounds. You now have to alight, and help push the vehicle, so that we can start it again.

It had happened quite a few times, many years ago, with a Fiat Premier Padmini that my father owned. And then a few more times with the government-white Ambassador car provided by his company. And a couple of times more, in Bangalore.

But it was the first ever time in my life that I had to alight, and push a public transport bus! Yup! I was heading to @2s’s and @soumyageorge’s wedding reception, when the lucky bus I got onto decided to whimper to a stop. Right in front of a busy junction.

As a traffic police seized the moment to scream his head off at the driver of the BMTC bus, the wily conducter said a few words in some heaven forsaken language (real sorry! iPod headphones were in my auditory apparatus…) and I saw many people stealthily getting down through the back entrance.

Curious me decided to alight as well. Interestingly, those who got down were getting into a very curious position. Was I witnessing some ancient pagan sex worship, something like that described in the Da Vinci Code, but in a homosexual subversion?

No! They were going to push the bus! I was illusionalised because many men had their hands not on the bus, but on the backs and heaven-knows-where-elses of other men. Ah! I should have removed the headphones! Coldplay’s Yellow just didn’t go with the scene. Anyway, determined to do my bit to help the country improve, even if that bit was as bittle as pushing the bus, thus helping a public service bus to start, which in turn would also clear a traffic jam, I laid my hands on the nearest available peace of iron/steel/whatever metal part of the bus (I didn’t exactly see the idea of pushing those who were pushing the bus as very appealing).

BMTC Bus (courtesy Deccan Herald)

And heave ho, heave ho, push, push… Hey… Wait a second… Isn’t the bus supposed to be going front? And not back?

Oops. Wrong gear. *snort* skrick. Gears changed. Clutch pushed all the way down.

Heave ho, heave ho, sixty people pushing a BMTC bus, heave ho. We pushed it for a good five metres before the antediluvian garangutan finally chugged to a start.

One would have expected a bit more respect for all the pushing we did. Without a thought for those who helped that rusted monstrosity to gear up, the driver bhaiya decided to zoom on. Ha! We didn’t let go! With yet another heave, we pushed ourselves onto the speeding animal.

The whole incident brought forth reminiscent memories of stone-age times, when humans must have had the same struggle when (s)he tried to tame the elephant…

But somehow, in the backdrop of Coldplay’s Clocks (Acoustic) I could draw metaphorical parallels between this small incident and present day citizen-government relationship in India. When there is a problem in our nation, we all point fingers at the government. Bad roads. Bad government. Corruption. Bad government. No street lights. Bad government. Bureaucracy. Bad government.

This can go on and on. If I project this scenario onto the bus incident, all of us passengers would have stood there, waiting for the mechanics to come and do whatever they have to. Meanwhile, we would have kept complaining what crap BMTC was. Instead, we all alighted, and lent a hand to push the bus, and get it started. Why? ‘Cos we all had to get somewhere.

Why don’t we apply the same principle for our problems? Does this mean that we are all hypocrites? We say that we want our nation to improve, but yet, we don’t show it. If we have to get somewhere, people, and we really feel that way, what on earth is stopping us from getting down and pushing?

Push! (Courtesy Cellular blog)

When we have a civic issue, instead of blaming the government and twiddling thumbs, why don’t we try getting down, and pushing? No garbage dumps? Mail your councillor. Bad roads? Mail your local MLA. No books in the public library? Mail the HRD Ministry. Roads full of garbage? Why not spend a couple of hours on a Sunday as a group to clean up the road? And make it a point not to dump garbage there the next time? Deforestation? Don’t waste paper the next time. Poaching? Don’t buy that animal skin! Traffic problem? Use a cycle, or walk. Use public transport.

We are all contributors to the ‘problems’ we speak of. For instance, we all crib about the traffic problem. And then we catch an auto to travel half a kilometer! Why? Why don’t we just walk? That way, we don’t contribute to the traffic problem, we don’t contribute to global warming, we save money, we become healthy! But no, we rather catch the auto, and blame the government. We blame the government of global warming, of recession, and even of unhealthy environment!

In a republican nation, citizens elect a few leaders, to make important decisions. But that does not mean that our responsibility as a citizen ends as soon as we press that button to register our vote during elections. The government is not an elite body of a few elected people. The government is us. We are the government.

Sixty two years back when our forefathers declared our nation independent, and adopted our own constitution, they knew what they were getting into. They knew that they had the responsibility of building a nation. And upkeeping it.

The question is, do we?