Today is Gandhi Jayanti. His Birth Anniversary. He would have been 139 years old, I think. Wonder what would he think of the world today, or India. Some people are saying he was right, about several things. I admire the way he understood how to stimulate large social groups with simple levers. Any way - he still continues to touch us. People often quote his, "If you want to be the change you want to see in this world, be it!". Some think about him because of the movie, and some think that all bald Indian men with round glasses remind them of Gandhi - which keeps the memory alive for me! I think it is sad then to write about the temple stampede in Jodhpur, on this day.

It is apparently the third such this year. The only too frequent incidents of terrorism have made the people extremely sensitive and understandably so. When things were less scary, one could do without well designed spaces that had proper exit routes in cases of emergency. People would have normally taken care of others. Just as they do now on our chaotic roads. Now, however, we might need to think again, particularly for those places where large numbers gather, which of course means a lot of places indeed. Is Indian life still precious enough for us to act?

Some time ago, I had the displeasure of riding on a tourist pleasure boat ride in Panjim. They had crammed over 800 people on this rickety contraption that should perhaps have not allowed more than maybe 200 people at most. There was no space to move on the deck, and should something unfortunate have happened, we were staring in the face of a massive catastrophe. I am sure there were a lot of people who should have been looking who were not, or rather had shut their eyes to what was being done in the name of commerce and tourism.

If only the ride had been otherwise worth it. The entertainment, a term which was a stretch to apply to this cacophonous, uncomfortable, distressing, anxiety-filled hour, was of the lowest standards imaginable. But then, who was I to complain. The rest of the 799 people danced on that cramped deck, and I got to see a new India. A new class had found access, and liberated themselves from whatever old mores had constrained them. And this is what they found good. It would be quite a while before they would start demanding better standards of safety, and respect for other people's rights. As I have learned, with India, it is only a matter of time.

We do hope that tragedies like this stampede wake people up, and as has often happened before, public opinion forces authorities to do something, at least for a while. Looking from the outside, it seems like an impossible task. The systems are overloaded from every perspective, and there are just not enough resources to do things in the ideal way. Is that an excuse? What about public safety? What about the preciousness of human lives? It would be nice if we acknowledged that there was a lot to be done yet, and not gloat, as we seem to have become prone to do.

I had another scary ride that year in a car from Delhi to Agra on a new multi-lane highway, that people seemed very proud of. The less I talk about it perhaps the better, but there were two things I think I could not ignore. On one stretch, a car was coming towards us in our traffic lane at highway speeds. Unimaginable elsewhere perhaps! Scared as I was, and surprised, I explained it away as a fault of the overall design of the system. This guy, did not want to drive several kilometers the proper way, when he could see where he wanted to go, and there was a nice paved road in front of his nose, and would save him much fuel too perhaps. Then there was the fact that outside the highway, the road conditions were pathetic. There was a class system right there if there was one! And why would the local taxpayer not use something better. Oh well! Ultimately, I still think it is poor architecture and design. We still have a long way to go.

If only we acknowledged it. If only we did not gloat!

Perhaps next year, there will be fewer such stampedes, even while we know there will be more of us visiting our gods here on earth.