Why Train journeys are so awkward ?

“WE AS A PEOPLE ARE NOT NICE”…..

This statement should be good enough to answer my rhetoric of a title ,but I guess u’d demand a justification.

Crammed in abt. 10X10 feet of space how 6 people spends more than 20-30 hours of time and yet are suspicious of each other’s guts ;so much so ;we even lock up our toiletries before sneaking a visit to the urinal for like a minute.

It’s not our fault,this has been rooted deep in our psyche,the suspiscion and hatred.As I sit here in the 2-tier ac compartment of the jammu bound Jhelum Express ,I cannot help but wonder,why are we so. Maybe it’s a defense mechanism of not trusting others,simply because the last time we trusted someone to do us some good,we got screwed over .(who ,u ask ?remember the britishers).Or , I don’t know maybe it’s something deeper.

As an amateur (read , having absolutely no damn idea) thinker-cum-philosopher ,I often wonder over such things and try to come up with my own explanations which are often validated by findings later. So, I guess what I’m saying is I’m getting good at that, read on don’t quit yet.

We as members of the great country of India believe in the concept of ‘Individualism’. Here ,let me illustrate…

U > u’r family > people who speak ur own language > people who look similar or are from the same area

(U’r priorities)

The moment we begin the journey ,right from the day we start walking and go out to buy candy on our own for the first time .We are reinforced with ideas about not talking to strangers ,being on guard every single second as if the whole world is out to get you.

But what I’ve observed so far from my very limited contacts with people around the world ,especially Europeans is that they tend to enjoy more ,because (out of some deluded belief in humanity) they still believe in each other and care .

Courtesy , Collective good ,having fun are much more important things to them than individual comfort.

Which I must admit doesn’t really serve them that well here in India (muggings,rape,the general inclination to take gori-chamris* for a ride,and not of the good kind ).

But amongst themselves they seem to be doing pretty well .

We on the other hand aren’t able to enjoy something as simple as a train journey ,jusu because of our general fear of socializing .

After some deliberation on the matter ,I was able to work out some parameters on someone’s tendency to socialize based on age and class.

There was one other major factor,viz. sex which makes the graph go all bonkers.(and is still being worked on by the researchers ).But that involves understanding females,which is itself another major research problem pondered on by thinkers for years ,so we'll leave that out for the moment.

I don’t know if we are right in adopting this manner of doing things, or should we try to tone it down a bit. As one of my good friends recently remarked ,”we tend to not enjoy things, just because we are worried about what people will think of us, people who we don’t know, and people who don’t matter to us, and ironically we don’t care about the people who actually matter “.

Infact here is an episode of the famous T.V. comedy “Frasier”…where the lead character Dr. Frasier Krane gets into trouble trying to be the good guy.Kindaa makes you wonder ...what's the way to go.

http://www.frasieronline.co.uk/episodeguide/season6/ep11.htm

http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=UaTyJtZnMW4

signing off....

"You know life is kindaa like a train,it's bearing down on you.And you know what ,it's gonna hit you. So you can start running when it's far off in the distance and still get hit or you can crack open a beer,grab a chair and just watch it come."