By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

We Indian tax-payers are a very unique breed of people. Quite unlike any others, living anywhere else in this world. We cry foul at the slightest, perceived injustice done to us by way of any denial or delay in the minuscule benefits that we feel the government owes us and which we think are our collective birthright.

But at the same time, we are not one bit bothered about the huge losses that we collectively incur on account of the complete lack of accountability with which the government spends the money we all pay as taxes, on completely unnecessary projects.

Sadly, we do not see this wasteful spending as a loss of our personal money.  And, thanks to our complete disregard, all government departments, merrily go on money-spending sprees, completely unchecked. This is the state of affairs in all States. across our entire country.

Right now, in our own city, if we look around, we can see this happening in the completely unscientific construction of storm water drains and in the mad sidewalk pavementing drive that is going on everywhere at a frantic pace.

Most of these expensive drains and pavemented footpaths will serve no purpose to us the residents, while only enriching the triad of colluding politicians, bureaucrats and contractors, a fact that is an open secret today.

But such open public secrets that concern us and our well-being, do not attract our attention. On the contrary, as we are frequently seeing these days, we are morbidly fascinated only by the not so open secrets of other people’s private lives! That is the shameful truth. Only when this sorry state of our attitude changes, can we expect our lives to get better.

To give you just one example of the wasteful expenditure that I am talking about, I would like to draw your attention to the sidewalk pavementing work that has just been started three days ago, along the road running between our Kalamandira and the Railway track.

Being a road without any commercial establishments whatsoever on it, this is a road that has very little pedestrian movement. So, a pavemented sidewalk there is completely unnecessary.

On the contrary, this stretch and its immediate neighbourhood have hitherto been an additional source of groundwater recharge to the nearby Kukkarahalli Lake, during the rains. This can only do much good to the health of the lake which is crying for attention and which deserves the utmost protection. So, every single unnecessary pavement block here and elsewhere too, is an impediment to the well-being of our environment.

Why are our city authorities unable to understand this in their almost insane drive to have completely pavemented sidewalks, in every nook and corner of our city? A short length of the opposite side of this very same road, immediately adjoining the Railway track, which has now been protected by a compound wall, was pavemented a couple of years ago.

To what purpose, I would like to ask? If it was done in the interests of hassle-free pedestrian movement, as is always claimed by the authorities, has this purpose been served? I think not.

To tactfully evict the almost permanent pottery selling squatters, from the wide triangular space that they had occupied at the beginning of this road, a park was created at great cost and still our authorities failed miserably in their lofty mission.

The traders outright refused to budge and even gave a statement on the visual media to this effect and simply moved over to the now pavemented sidewalk alongside, which has only helped them to reside there more comfortably and ply their trade in peace, of course, at much inconvenience to citizens.

This is the only purpose that expensive, evenly pavemented sidewalks, are serving in most Indian cities today. They become ready-made, ready-to-use spaces for illegal encroachment and misuse. When those vested with powers to look after the well-being and beauty of our city, are completely powerless in their mission, why should they be allowed to spend our money for doing something that does no good to us? It is undoubtedly, just another brazen example of ‘Have Money, Will Spend,’ as long as it is someone else’s!

Junglee Jumbos!

Our city saw a potentially dangerous but very amusing situation two days ago, when two of our young Dasara Jumbos, Dhananjaya and Kanjan, decided to break free from their temporary camp at our Palace premises and start running amok. They were perhaps trying to head back to the pristine jungles they had been brought from, unhappy with life of confinement in a bustling city.

A tiff between the two, over food sharing, is said to have been the cause for this breakout bid, which was fortunately very short-lived.

Thankfully, their two respective mahouts, with their jungle-born skills, could quickly catch up with them and cajole them into returning to their camp, before they could do any harm to themselves or others, amidst the fast-moving traffic, on the busy road that they chose to take.

It was a very amusing sight to see Kanjan galloping in glee, like a runaway locomotive, without its driver, only to be chased closely by Dhananjaya, its camp-mate, with a mahout atop, desperately trying to control it.

The screams of the mahouts and passersby, combined with the sounds of the traffic and the loud trumpeting of the two truant pachyderms, provides a very brief but comic spectacle in the videos of the incident that have now gone viral.

Fully tamed elephants may be very gentle and manageable giants in trained hands but because they are known to be very demanding in their desire to get the right kind of attention and care, you can never say when their wild instincts will take over, at the slightest excuse. That is when they can transform themselves into an elephantine problem!

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