Can Metro Rail teach us discipline?

The story of our indiscipline as a nation is widely known. The indiscipline of our people is seen even in foreign airports. Those who go to the Middle Eastern countries as laborers,especially present this disorderliness in some ridiculous way. Often, they break the queues. The concerned authorities have to endure much trouble to keep them in order.

It is our national failure that we can’t stand in line. This derailing tendency is intensifying our national haphazardness. We witness thousands of chaotic incidents while traveling on the street. The vehicles are running whimsically even on important avenues. Vehicles are prone to overtake one another even in a narrow lane, where overtaking is prohibited. In most cases, the traffic congestion in Dhaka city is the cause of this indiscipline.

Some Bengali writers had written that the Bengali people learned to stand in a line first while taking rations during the Second World War. Before that, they need not stand in a line. In the rural social system, everyone used to move by his own rules; farmers used to work in the fields, and fishermen went to the river for fishing. In recent times, Bengalis learned to stand in a line when they started going to the bank.

Not only at the bank but in many places in our metro life, we need to stand in line. Starting from paying bills at a shopping mall to visiting doctor’s Chambers, we are forced to stand in queues. The culture of standing in queues has also started in super shops. In very recent times, Metro Rail has been added to this practice.

From collecting tickets to punching cards, from climbing up the stairs to getting off the Metro Rail, at every step we have to follow military-style discipline. Those who have already traveled on Metro Rail know, that if someone commits the slightest deviation of the rules, others will leer at him which suggests, `Oh uncultured, you haven't learned to ride the Metro Rail yet! Look, how I have traveled from Europe to America!

Everyone in Metrorail is seen to follow the instructions of discipline, whether due to modernization of the system or any other reason. Everyone is bound to stand in line in front of the ticket counter. Even, if they have to wait on the platform for the arrival of the train, everyone stands in line in front of the door opening area. Every passenger gets on and off in an organized manner.
Often Metro Rail is more crowded than local buses, but there is no rush. The same Metro Rail passenger if gets off at Motijheel boards on a local bus, he may be forced to jostle with other passengers. The reason is not the ill manner of the passenger; it is the fault of the System.

The local bus passenger is not certain, if he misses one bus he can board another bus or not. He is in a hurry to reach his destination. Even if he is able to board on bus, he is not sure when the bus will reach the destination. As a consequence, he has to be worried all the time. This anxiety often instigates the possibility of losing emotional balance. All who travel by public transport in Dhaka city have to face this experience.

Only the transport system in Dhaka is making us mentally sick. According to the last two national surveys conducted in 2009 and 2005, at least one person out of every five in the country has some kind of mental disorder that requires treatment. In this situation, Metrorail has not only brought a good transportation system to our civic life but has also become a center for curing mental ailment. It is expected that Metro Rail will bring a big change in our culture, psychology, behavior, and spirit.

Metro Rail will teach us some discipline. We will get used to discipline, but if the overall management system is not changed, how much will it affect our nature?