Be a little mad

 Although it is a common assumption that women cannot drive, the very, very few female drivers out and about in Kolkata are particularly mindful of rules, and of doing things right. The overwhelming majority of drivers on the road are men, and the art is assumed to come to them naturally. Yet many of them have the most appalling road sense.

Compared to the planned road networks in cities around the world, many of those in Kolkata seem to remain the narrow village streets they once were. Worse, they are often in poor condition. Although the business of building construction is booming in the city, the access points have changed little. More traffic in the same space is the major problem yet to be adequately addressed in the city. From having to maneuver in small spaces, one could expect greater skills, but often the driving is with no sense at all.

It reinforces my belief that mothers in India spoil their sons. How does that follow, one might ask. Fact is these chaps are raised with the belief that they are the cat’s whiskers. Secure in doting maternal indulgences, the little emperors are able to get away with anything. And as grown men in the driver’s seat, they expect similar deference from the environment around them, and for traffic to part before them like the sea did for Moses. Like little boys with toys, thoughtless about consequences, they just want to go vroom!

 

Vehicles are positioned just about anywhere, in the fight for space.  Racing to get ahead, a driver that needs to turn right next may come up on the extreme left, and then suddenly sticking his arm out of the window as signal, attempt to make his turn, cutting clean across the paths of all the other vehicles behind. Scratched, scraped and dented car bodies are testimony to what invariably follows. Stalled traffic because two drivers are locked in altercation, is a common sight on the road. 

Small cars, the vehicles of choice for most women drivers, are like tin cans. Though they may negotiate the narrow roads better, and leave a smaller carbon footprint, they damage easily and generally come off second best in even minor collisions. Their repair has to be mostly out of pocket, since insurance payouts for bodywork are meagre. Knowing full well that the litigation process is too cumbersome to pursue, the other side gleefully gets away scot-free.

Moreover, women drivers are in a minority, and traditionally they are not expected to play men’s games, nor are they taught to be overtly aggressive in public. The odds stack against gender on Indian roads. Men tend to hit and run, the general public stares rather than supports, and the police are inert. I’ve learned to be theatrical in such situations. Being perceived a little ‘mad’ seems to work – nothing hurts the male ego more than being held up to public ridicule! 

 

My car has recently returned from the garage, and I am being extra careful. If a couple of weeks go by without incident, it is cause for joy. At a crossing, the signal lights change to amber just as I approach the stop line. Seeing no point in trying to beat the red light, I slow to a stop. Almost immediately I feel the nudge from behind, rear-ended by the yellow cab following. Really? I jump out and throw my hands up and out in the classic gesture of What?! The driver stays put inside his cab. His passengers too are quiet, embarrassed at being in the public spotlight.

Pointing dramatically at the man behind the wheel, I jab two fingers towards my eyes, up towards the lights and then at my car, indicating that he should keep alert and eyes front while driving. The man pokes his head out of the window and says, I saw the lights, I saw the red, so see, I stopped. How? I retort loudly, by hitting me? No, no, he says placatingly, I hit the brake, but see, it just slipped. Bystanders testify that no damage is done; it is only a light tap, let him go. I wave my hand imperiously for him to back off, and he complies at once. 

Non-resident Indians visiting the country, consider it quite an experience to ride passenger in the front seat. Drivers themselves in the West, they shut their eyes, or exclaim in horror at vehicles passing inches away. A friend and I are looking for a particular road leading off from the main road. I indicate the rather narrow opening we have just gone past as probably it. I decide to come around again and take it on the next pass. She stares in surprise - that is a road for traffic going both ways? Well, it is broader than many others in the city, where one has to back up to some siding to let another get by! Rejoining the flow of traffic, I position rightmost, in preparation for the U-turn. 

Nearing the crossing, I turn on the right indicator. Three lights begin to flash at once, at the front, the back and on the side - essentially, leaving no room for doubt for anybody following as to the directional intent. A couple of motorcyclists move up further to my right. They both turn right and roar away, and as I begin to follow on the turn I noticed a third motorcyclist gunning his vehicle to catch up.  Aha! I thought, he’s decided he must go first too, he’s not about to let me beat him to it. Two-wheeler riders seem always on the go, and see even half a metre of available space as ample opportunity to zip by. They look pretty unstable to me, and I give them a wide berth.

 

The turn road is up a little incline and I slow down further to accommodate. To my surprise, on coming alongside, the rider suddenly throws up his hands and lets go of the handlebars altogether! The motorcycle dashes into the bumper of my car, and then away, with him trying desperately to stay on.  A low boundary wall across the turn road stops them from hitting oncoming traffic. Immediately a crowd gathers around.

I drive up the incline and out of the main traffic flow before turning off my car’s engine. Within a month, the car body looks damaged again! Meanwhile, the man has struggled to his feet. As he spots a couple of women emerge from the car, his fear turns to belligerence. He decides it is safe to go on the offensive. He accuses me of speeding, and turning without any indicator lights. 

His bluster, though annoying, makes the actual picture clear.  The fellow had accelerated before the intersection not to turn, but to zigzag past me and get ahead on the straight road. I suppose the sudden incline that he would have to zig up first, and then zag down, fazes him at the end. Losing his nerve at the crucial juncture, he abandons both his own daring plan and his ‘bike control. Somebody has to be blamed for the failure, and who better scapegoat than two innocuous-looking women! 

Bystanders usually like to side with the ‘little guy’ in the two-wheeler versus four-wheeler fracas. But with us in the fray, they decided to just watch the drama. The biker is asked if he is hurt. Immediately he tries to locate some cut or bruise to draw public sympathy with!  Stop pretending, I say in strident tones, you are not hurt at all and neither is your brand new bike. Look instead at the damage your stupidity caused my car. I draw attention to the front bumper that dangles loose and forlorn with the force of the impact.

I wag a stern finger in his face to emphasize his ineptitude - You were on the wrong side, you were speeding to overtake at the intersection, and you lost control. For a moment he is nonplussed at being yelled at. Then perhaps realizing that public opinion too might soon indict him, and who knows, they could drag him to the police station for further humiliation, he wordlessly picks up his bike and quickly exits the scene.

As we inspect the damage left behind, people come over to help. One knowledgeable person pushes the bumper back into place. He assures me that damage is just the dent on its side, and the car’s road running ability is unaffected. As I turn on the ignition, we see the indicator lights are still on, and they begin to blink cheerily again. I point it out to the bystanders and they nod in agreement. That chap, say a couple of teenaged boys, shaking their heads and laughing. They point in the direction in which he made off as they relate the story to curious latecomers that might have missed the show.

If women are to fend for themselves, they must be assertive. They need to confront the perpetrators, if only for the satisfaction of the last word, and to dispel the widely held notion of them being pushovers. Hopefully, some men will now think twice before taking punga (liberties) with women drivers on the road in Kolkata.

Owning Indian roads

That we are rather inconsiderate of people perceived as outsiders is, I think, the fallout of the social allegiances adhered to in India’s collectivism. These relationships of ‘us’ and ‘them’ groups are high-maintenance. In attempts to preserve their intra-group integrity, and areas of control, they are unkind to those perceived parayas (outsiders) despite the traditional culture of hospitality to all. Gender segregation is at work too. In the minds of the majority of Indian men, the external world is their preserve. They own the roads, and they may be sexist about it. It is surprising how much resentment is generated against women drivers, the outsiders. Common jibes are that these sisters-in-law should stay home and cook!

Pedestrians, however, are relieved to see women drivers coming along. They stick out an arm as a stop sign just about anywhere and begin to cross the road, confident that the women’s maternal instincts will take over, and they will stop to let them through. This happens even when the traffic signal has turned green. Men are far less accommodating; many actually speed up seeing their movement, and pedestrians, the elderly, women and children, are forced to scurry back. 
 

The common assumption is that men are born better drivers, although the evidence for it may not be particularly strong. I was in Delhi recently, and happened to be a passenger in a large sedan. I expressed the wish to drive this more powerful vehicle sometime, since my car in Kolkata is amongst the smallest on the road. The driver I shall call Prem, smiled patronizing, and I could almost see his ego inflate. Benevolently, he said he would teach me how to drive. Women, you see, just cannot drive! 

On Indian roads, size seems to matter in road hierarchy. Men at the wheels of bigger, more expensive cars, expect right of way over everybody else. As we went along, I noticed Prem didn’t much bother to watch his rear-view and wing mirrors. His trajectory seemed premeditated - he would go as he wished, and others could (or should!) drive around him. At one point, he took a turn too sharply, and sideswiped another car parked on the side of the road. Lucky for him nobody seemed to notice, and he quickly drove off in another direction.

A safe distance away, he began to boast about the long distances he drives every day without mishap. So what happened back there, I enquired. Immediately he faulted the other car for blocking the passage. We got off easy, he chortled. I was irked at his suddenly drafting me as the co-conspirator of his error. You didn’t get off easy, I emphasized, you just ran, but my disgust was lost on him. It was clear that he learned nothing from the experience, because sometime later, he left the car idling on the road and dashed into a shop nearby for supplies. Wanting to save on parking fees, he was oblivious to the fact that the car was now an impediment for other vehicles, not to mention the wastage of fuel and environmental pollution happening at the same time!

Bad driving is common and so are incidents of hit-and-run. Driving licences may be purchased under the table - without knowledge either of cars, or the traffic rules. Bystanders get het up if there is injury to people or loss of life, otherwise they gather around just to watch the drama of altercations unfold. Sometime ago, one such a rookie driver, showing off to his mates whilst his boss was away, rammed a roadside stall. He tried to flee, of course, and in his hurry, rear-ended my stationary small car. Alert locals nabbed one of the boys out that car before it sped away. The terrified youth quickly spilled the beans; the group was rounded up and hauled into the police station. Their families showed up as well. Mothers especially, wept buckets, beating their chests, begging the police and anybody else who might listen, for mercy. Because they were poor, it would naturally be cruel to book their sons. The poverty card is easily played in this country, and no compensation is ever forthcoming for the damage these ‘poor’ inflicted on others’ property! 

 

In majority, male drivers let loose on Indian roads, drive to get there first. However, they have no real answer to the question “and where to exactly?” As it is the roads rarely have lane-markings, and even if they do, few bother to keep to them. Driving is taken to mean to constantly overtake somebody else, although more often, they cause or intensify traffic jams. Sudden maneuvers are usual, and without sound or signal, an adjoining vehicle noses out diagonally, intending to force another to give way.  This when there is traffic at standstill ahead, behind and on every other side! Other vehicles, magnetically attracted by movement, invariably follow the leader to jam up the roads even more.

It sometimes feels a violation of personal space, but it makes “road sense” here to creep close to the vehicle ahead, almost bumper-to-bumper, to plug any ‘openings’! One has to be on guard against lateral encroachments, because some ambitious overtaker will soon insert his vehicle, and unceremoniously sideline the giver of space. I’ve learnt that being polite does not pay, and hoot insistently and gesticulate wildly to draw attention to the infractions that might happen relating to me. That seems to back them down. Men in India don’t want their misdeeds held up to public scrutiny, especially by brazen outsider women!

Imagery in being lonely

“I wandered lonely as a cloud/that floats on high o’er hills and vales/when all at once I saw a crowd/a host of golden daffodils…”

Wordsworth, I think it is, who turns the mundane sense of sight into exuberant imagery. I can almost see for myself, the riot of colour in the countryside unblemished by the clutter of housing projects raising ugly fingers to the sky. Who can remain lonely with words so effused with joy! Easy it is to escape the daily demands of tasks, the negativity of co-workers, and ethical conflicts, to float away light and carefree above the humdrum, in communion with Nature, at one with her creations. 

But then, before my inward eye, flashes a different memory. I relive my leaden-footed foreboding all the afternoon my son fails to return or call, my repeated rings to his cellphone going unanswered; my uneasiness turning to anger with the policemen at the door seeking male family members to speak to, and my thinking 'there has to be a mistake' at the sudden mention of death. 

Here too is imagery, but, seared in indescribable pain, it locks in replay for a lifetime where no words can bring solace. I realize that the ‘lonely’ state of being varies with inputs of the emotional mind. I see one as a moment of quiescence awaiting direction, open to new experiences.  Like the eagerness of youth when resonating words, or slivers of wisdom, cut through the mists of confusion to shower light on the way to go forward. The readiness to meet head on all that the future brings unfazed by portents of failure; the undeniable urge to become, to combat challenges and, come hell or high water, to adapt to new reality. But the other state is different yet. A friend comments that our emotions appear to hang like garlands around dates on the calendar. Fact is the dates per se are not important, but associated events are. Snapshots of another place, another time, these past happenings burn into memory, and remembrances trigger the outpourings of emotions. 

I see again the astonishment on faces at the police station as I arrive alone. Nobody seems to want to speak to me, as I demand to see my son. They probably are afraid of women going berserk in the throes of grief, and tell me that since it is late night, it is best to return next day in the company of other relatives.  I refuse to leave my son ‘unidentified’, and eventually, they put the evidence before me - his personal effects. During the long wait for completion of the paperwork, I struggle to comprehend my reality. The other women there, eager to share their problems, look offended at my lack of empathy or response to their venting. I feel a disconnect with the immediate surroundings, in spiraling descent into the murky depths of impotent despair. Even a decade on, I touch my helplessness before the inexorable power of circumstances. 

Finally, against the backdrop of the callousness of the cadaver handlers, and their inquisitive chatter about me, I am confronted by the irrefuteable. I first recognize my son’s toes, the clothes on his body that look as clean as when he left that morning. I half expect him to jump up laughing uproariously at having fooled me silly  – and then I see the blood. The shock returns now as then, at the sight of his face smashed almost beyond recognition from the road accident that killed him, his one whole eye seems to stare into mine, his mouth open in a soundless scream… I wonder if I am delusional or in a momentary burst of light, the vision really does appear of an effulgent presence, before whom there can be no bargaining, and to whom I beg acceptance for my son. When consciousness returns of the dark, dreary environment of the morgue, and I am aware of silently mouthing the gayatri mantra (Sanskrit prayer), while my body seems to bleed profusely inside.

I wonder how other animals deal with such pain. Surely all their behaviours cannot be written off as mere ‘instinctive actions’ – what about the tiger mother battling ferociously to protect her young, elephant herds standing in respectful silence before the bones of their ancestors, the loyal companionships of dogs and other house pets? Relationships obviously matter to them as they do to us. Perhaps we are yet to fathom the depths of their conscious thought or feelings because they communicate differently. Their acceptance of the inevitable is definitely stronger, as is their dignity in moving on from personal tragedy.

My world shattered in an instant and I still grope to find the pieces. I am horrified that I, as parent, have failed in duty to protect, and that I outlive my son. Why did destiny have to ensure my being left behind? In my reasoning, had we left life together, we would hardly have been missed - not for long anyway. Truth is my focus had been on making him independent of me. I would relate as a lesson of life, the story of Flint, the baby gorilla that grew up so dependent on his mother, he just could not survive her death. ‘I won’t be around forever’ I would din into him. My intuition failed me there, because I never once visualized the necessity of my training likewise as well.

Humans mourn loss not so much for those who leave, but for their own voided future. Kubler-Ross theorizes five stages to the grief that must follow – denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance. They have no specific time or order for appearance, they may or may not at all display in individual sorrow, and people may even be stuck in one stage or other.  

I must own to being laden with shades of anger from both within and outside of me. It came as aftershock that many distanced from me, fearing ‘infection’, and some dissected the event in secret joy at having escaped the attention of Yamraj (lord of death). Others of the extended family, especially the elder male relatives, voiced belittlement at not being consulted first, blamed the event on bad victim behaviours, bad parenting and bad fruits of karma. The social response was near unbearable then, and it bothers me that my son is now so easily forgotten. I cling to memories as all I have left of him, while to others he is lost without trace in the sands of time.  

Fact is the social fabric has not evolved with time, but has simply been adulterated. Through centuries of collectivism, community rituals dealt with occasions, both happy and sad, to continually refresh the cultural context giving meaning to life events.  Today, overlays of the individualism learned from other cultures have diminished their importance. Whether residing within the country or abroad, modernity has meant that only remnants of traditions carry forward, often as superstitions. In the electronic world, the social solidarity traditional group activities once generated to coincide individual and collective well-being are no more. Instead the interpersonal bonds have weakened, while fear and uncertainty abound about coping with the unexpected.

Technology is no substitute for the psychological development of people. The over-dependence on rationality to carry the day leaves the emotional mind backward and retarded. Individuals tend to adopt defence mechanisms – anger, judgement, selective memory and so on, to protect against the external. But memories are the internal stressors, reminders of devastation that, because one cannot change, one must endure. A random thought or association triggers feelings of profound loss or failure. That experience of defeat most unexpected is not at all easy to work out of, for alone or in the crowd, one is lonely. Unless the memories and their emotional attachments are put in perspective, they tend to grow unnoticed, and like a bomb buried live, just wait to explode someday.

Accidents: The human factors

Synopsis: Contributing factors exist not just in the person but also in the dynamic, sometimes unknown surroundings.


Both novices and experienced personnel contribute to the human error causing 70 percent of accidents.

Levels of failure

Reporting systems are usually ineffective in identifying these human failures. Hence, while engineering or mechanical failures have significantly been reduced, human error ratios over four decades remain the same.

Researchers say that they actually occurs at four different levels that need appropriate analysis:

• Unsafe acts of operators, like errors or violations by aircrew.
• Preconditions for unsafe acts like physical, mental or psychological health of operators or crew resource mismanagement.
• Unsafe supervision, like inadequacy or violations of supervision, poorly planned operations, and failure to correct known problems.
• Organizational influences like resources management, organizational climate or operational processes.
  

Personality?

A study in 2001 held that a quarter of ‘human error’ accidents are attributable to personality. High or low scores on certain traits correlate with the ability to avoid accidents or be prone to them:

• Dependability – conscientious and socially responsible
• Agreeableness – not aggressive or self-centred
• Openness – learning from experience and accepting suggestions from others.
  

High scores on the first two and low scores on the last decrease the likelihood of accidents. Low scores on first two causes competitiveness, and non-compliance with safety regulations. High score on the last leaves people dreamy and increases accident risk.

Profiles

Studies on pilot profiles however, failed to find a typical personality type. Important traits are intelligence, self-confidence, emotional maturity, adaptability, extraversion, and action orientation with desire for challenge and success. Combat pilots score highly on abstract thinking, stress tolerance, decisiveness and resilience.

Essentially operators in hazardous jobs need to be practical, sober and dependable. But a point with jet pilots appears to be a close relationship with their fathers. Also of the first 23 US astronauts in space flight, 21 were ‘first-born’.

Regarding gender, men in aviation score higher in competitiveness but lower in expressivity and striving for achievements. Women pilots appear to be more extraverted, agreeable and conscientious, having less openness and neuroticism than their male counterparts.

The surroundings

But some say labels merely enable people to blame their mistakes on their personality type. The point is factors exist not just in the person but also in the dynamic, sometimes unknown surroundings represented by:

• Technology
• Procedures
• Physical and non-physical environment
• Other people
  

People generally don’t go out with intention of causing accidents, but how they react to situations is important. That means interactions between the individual and objects or people around them are just as important.

The dynamics

Researchers believe that tests homogenize groups and the resulting average obtained becomes the ‘right stuff’. This obscures variability, and actual motivations for the job, because training and operational performances tend to differ.

Operations brings into focus adaptability, coping with stress, and a more crucial aspect to success – teamwork. Rising environmental pressures can cause personality conflicts, with operators either internalizing negativity or projecting it on others. This interferes with interpersonal relationships and individual contributions to team effort.

Comments/opinions, anyone??

References for “Accidents” blogposts:

All 155 Survive as Pilot Ditches Plane in Hudson

A human error analysis

Are you accident prone? (twmacademy.com)

Identifying the accident prone

Personality studies in air crew

Accidents: Deviations from plan

Synopsis: A combination of random factors contributes to disaster happening - or being averted.


We tend to believe that forces beyond us control disasters. They happen following Murphy’s Law that everything that can go wrong, does. And, the people affected survive only by luck or chance.

Unexpected events

Disasters grow out of unexpected events interrupting or interfering with routine proceedings. They precipitate deviations from planned behaviour that invoke risks.

For example, the now-famous American Airways airliner 15(4)9 took off on a routine flight from La Guardia Airport, with about 156 people on board.

The flight path, however, crossed that of migratory birds. The plane collided with a flock of geese, within minutes of take off. Bird-hits are said to cost the American aviation industry up to 600 million USD annually.


Water rescue

The event caused both engines of the plane cut out, preventing its return to land. Using the icy waters as the only accessible runway, the captain ditched the plane into the Hudson River.

The most impact passengers suffered were being thrown against the seat ahead. The plane also stayed intact and level in the water, so they could clamber out onto the wings and floating door.

But experts say even five minutes’ exposure in those freezing temperatures would still have caused severe hypothermia if not fatalities.

Responders speeded up the rescue process, even driving an inflatable boat onto the plane’s wing. Paramedics found one passenger had broken legs and others with less serious injuries. Everybody, including an infant, survived the ordeal.

Random factors

The bird-hit damage raised the potential of disaster. But the skill and presence of mind of the aircrew and first responders on the ground made it a miraculous escape instead.

Not one isolated event, but a combination of random error factors contributes to disaster happening - or being averted. These include:

• Situational factors like atmospheric conditions
• Individual factors like perception, cognition and physiological responses of people
• Specific personal factors like vision, age, experience, perceptual style and perceptual-motor relationships
• Psychological qualities of the people involved

The Hudson miracle wasn’t all due to providence. While situational factors were the driving forces for disaster, the human factors - individual, personal and psychological - of key people withstood their power.

Processing state

The pilot, an airways safety consultant, former fighter pilot and commercial pilot for nearly three decades, also had extensive glider experience. He glided the plane onto water so it didn’t break up on impact. Since 9/11, ground rescue workers have trained long and hard at disaster management in different scenarios. Their combined competencies ensured that all aboard the ill-fated liner disembarked safely.

Every industry invests in safety, putting precautionary barriers especially in hazardous job situations. But the mere presence of procedures doesn’t guarantee safety. Each procedure also has inherent weaknesses or ‘blind spots’ whereby it only works under certain conditions, or up to a point.

Bridging the gap between the plan and reality needs creative thinking. It also depends upon individual ‘processing state’ – functioning at full alert to expect the unexpected, or multitasking on autopilot with attention divided.

Cont’d 2…The human factors