A unique practice?

Being a young developing country still finding its feet, there is still much wrong with India. But the country also is the home to many sound social systems and practices. The sheer diversity of the country is mindboggling. And if one were to have been lucky of travelling across the country as a common man, there are many unique things to be seen ranging from the dabbawallahs of mumbai to the milk vendor in Hyderabad who comes to your house with a herd of buffallos and milks the required quantity in your presence to the tribal load carrier in the malls of Shimla, where vehicles are not allowed, carrying huge loads on his back.

I have heard, as a youngster, of newspapers being kept on the street corner in Hyde Park in London with no one to supervise. Customers will put the money in the tray and take the paper they want. Would have given way to a vending machine by now. But this was told to highlight the honesty of people in England. How far this is true I don't know, I assume it was.

One thing I have seen with my own eyes is a practice that is very very unique. In Madras (somehow I still cannot make myself refer to it as Chennai), the local city buses are crowded always. Like all Indian buses, it has two entrances. The ticket collector (conductor) sits near the back door and the bus is jam packed. People are expected to enter through the back door, pay the money, collect the ticket and move to the front. But in practice, many women get in through the front door. It is impossible for them to to move to the rear of the bus to buy the ticket as the bus is overcrowded. Now comes the interesting part. The lady passenger hands over to the person sitting next to the front door the money and tells him or her as to her destination. He/she passes it to the person behind them, they in turn to the people sitting behind and so on till it reaches the ticket collector. The ticket collector issues the ticket, collects the money, handsover the balance and the return journey for the ticket and balance starts. It unerringly reaches the original person. This is not a one-off situation. This happens thousands of times every single day and I have not seen this in any other city anywhere in India that I have travelled, and I have been to quite a few places in my life time.

You might ask, what is so great about this. That is precisely the point. There is nothing great about this. It is just a case of people helping others to make someone's life easier - in this case the ticket collectors and the lady passengers. But then why don't people in other parts do it? I am still searching for an answer.