Some things are good in Madurai

Notwithstanding the harsh sun, the loneliness and the distance from my family & friends, lately I have liked Madurai, the place where I came two months back for my new assignment. Some incidents have brought a paradigm shift in the way I thought about the people here. Earlier I thought that they would be rude to outsiders but they have been much more welcoming than I thought. People are well mannered.

One day I was riding a bike and because of my mistake another bike rider fell down from his bike and got injured. I was shocked and ran to him, by the time I reached near him there were some people helping him to stand on his feet. He suffered minor scratches. I apologised to him, he said no problem. I gave him some money for bandages and repair of his bike and moved on after apologising once again. The matter was over in less than five minutes.

Think about the same incident taking place in some where in north India, after the accident the first instinct would be to run away. If I would stay there even for a minute I would get a few tight slaps even before I could come out of the shock that too not from the guy who fell from his bike but from a third person who would in no way be related to him or from the accident. And then I would be forced to give money to him. There apology would not have counted and resolving the issue would take at least one hour.

Another incident I was in my office cab on a traffic signal suddenly I something banged the vehicle from behind, turning back we realised the indicator of the car had been broken because of the impact between the cab and a truck behind us. Neither the cab driver nor the truck driver felt it necessary to waste time over discussing it. In north, first they would exchange some “Godly” words and then they would call all their relatives as if there was a great mishap. Some times some of the relatives would come and without knowing anything about the incident they would try to hit the other party.  During all this drama there would be a traffic jam. The issue would be resolved by the police constable who would take hundred rupees from both.

Here in a bus when a seat vacates the person standing nearby would ask to others before sitting himself. At other places people would run from one end of the bus would run to the other end just to get the seat. When a lady passenger boards a bus some one or the other would stand up and offer his seat.

During this brief period, here, I have not seen any girl teasing in fact females are respected very much, no wonder the girl to boy sex ratio is much higher in south than in north. Here women roam around like free birds. Most of the women work without any guilt or fear.

All these things can happen only in dreams in North.