You might have read in the newspapers yesterday about the
Volvo bus ride that led to jail for a lady! Apparently the tussle started when neither
the passenger nor the conductor had the right change & that ended up ugly.
One
point of view, for a solution to this could be to tackle the ‘Currency Change’
problem either by using credit cards, sufficient coins etc. But is that all? Similar
issues occur every day & outside of the Volvo buses too. What could solve
all those problems? Lets first take another look at what happened in that bus.
After the initial ‘No Change’ – ‘No Change’ talk, apparently the conductor
asked her to get off at the next stop. Well, that’s off topic for out context
here. More important is what happened next. He is said to have spoken something
in Kannada (to himself? To other passengers?), which agitated the lady &
slapped him thinking he was abusing her in Kannada.
Did he? May be, May be not, but that’s secondary.
First things first, slapping / physically abusing someone if you THINK he cursed you – a No No. |
| The Bus Conductor who got slapped |
Secondly,
let’s say if he did curse, whose fault is it? Whose fault is it for not knowing
if he did curse or not? And if he did, what did he say? This doesn’t just apply
for that conductor alone, for all the many many service segment workers in the
city, be it bus conductors, auto drivers, shop keepers etc. Just because they
spoke in Kannada, is it fair to assume they abused you? If you take pride in
saying “I have been in Bangalore for 5 years & the only line I know is ‘Kannada
Gothilla’” then don’t you think you should take the same pride in knowing that someone
is possibly abusing you in a language you haven’t learnt? Or do you expect
everyone to learn & know the languages you know? Please understand that if
they could speak as good English as you do, they probably wouldn’t have been
bus conductors or auto drivers or tiny shop vendors. Do remember they are still
much better behaved than many others in the country who might speak ‘YOUR’ language. So stop cribbing that
people around you don’t speak English or Hindi & instead make an effort to
learn Kannada or take what comes your way : be it abuses or casual talk which
would just sound gibberish to you anyway.
And if
you are thinking of blaming that no one taught you or gave an opportunity I am
not going to buy that. If you were any willing at all, you would have by now
been on the links below which are the top search results if you look for ‘learn
Kannada’.
Sakkathaagide..:):)
ReplyDeleteKannadave nammama avalige ki mugiyamma..:)