C'est tellement vrai...
By Ranjani Iyer Mohanty
I was standing in line at the McDonald’s in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar one day last week. It wasn’t lunchtime yet so there wasn’t a crowd. I stood at one of the counters, behind a woman who was being served, and waited. A minute later, two young ladies came in. As I watched, they nonchalantly came and stood in line – in front of me. When I politely but firmly pointed out that I was in line, they first seemed surprised that I would have the bad manners to bring this up. Then, seeing the smoke emanating from my ears, they quickly apologized and went to stand at the back.
This is not the first time this has happened and I’m sure it won’t be the last. In India, I’ve had people butt in front of me in lines at stores, banks, hospitals, and airports. OK, so I may look like a patsy but I’m sure I’m not the only one who has experienced this. Most people also drive in this same way; instead of driving in lanes, we are constantly trying to edge ahead of the car in front. Why is it that so many Indians try to jump the queue?
We live in a hugely-populated, resource-constrained country. As a result of that, two things may be happening. One is that we’ve stood in so many queues during our lives, we’re tired of standing in queues and we just don’t want to do it anymore. The other is that we’ve seen that if we wait patiently in a queue, by the time our turn comes up, the item is sold out. Have you heard the saying, “Good things come to those who wait”? Not here, you haven’t. In this environment, he who hesitates is lost for sure. With 1.2 billion people eyeing the same McAloo Tikki, we can’t afford to stand in line.
It could also be because our society is very hierarchical. We intrinsically believe in inequality. Thomas Friedman may have hallucinations of a flat world but ours is vertical – based on money, influence, education, caste, skin color, and the list goes on. We’ve all had the experience of waiting in a long line and seeing someone ushered through before us; no doubt a friend of the DM, GM, or PM. “First come, first served” has little meaning here. It’s more like “VIP come, VIP served.” If I’m more important than you, why should I stand in line behind you? My time is more precious and my needs more valid. Surely I deserve it faster, and more of it too.
But what happens to those of us who are not VIPs, or even IPs? Maybe we are just Ps. Then the trick is to pretend we’re more important than the other guys. Berkeley professor Cameron Anderson suggests that “overconfidence provides adaptive social benefits” such as “higher peer-perceptions of ability and elevated social status.” More simply put, in the immortal words of some modern philosopher, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull—-.” If you look important, you may get away with jumping the queue – most of the time.
A story I recently heard captures this well. In a busy airport, an airline check-in agent was trying to help a long queue of passengers. An important-looking man marched straight up to the counter and demanded to be served immediately because he had a flight to catch. The agent politely told him that all the people in line were waiting for the same flight so if he’d kindly stand in the queue, she’d be happy to help him. Angry, he asked her, “Do you know who I am?!” The agent looked at him, then switched on the intercom and made an announcement: “I have a gentleman here at the counter who does not know who he is. Could someone please help him?” This received roars of laughter from the passengers waiting in line. The man was furious and said to the agent through clenched teeth: “F— you!” She sweetly replied, “You’ll have to stand in line for that, too.”
Unfortunately, in India such egalitarian airline agents are mostly only found in joke, legend, and song. Often the self-important person gets away with it and for this, the service providers must also take the blame. I’ve had several experiences where store clerks have ignored the person standing in line in front of me and tried to serve me first, because I assume I looked higher up on the pecking order. I’ve had to again politely but firmly point out that they were in line before me.
Let’s face it: In India, jumping the queue can indeed be a useful survival skill. However, as India’s population continues to grow and resources become even more scarce, our ability to stand in a queue to await our turn – whether on foot waiting for water, in a store waiting for service, or in a car waiting for the green light –will not just grease the wheels of social interaction, it will allow products and services and traffic to flow more efficiently.
It could also prevent queue rage, road rage, and one day, perhaps, even riots in the street. But we’ll only consider standing in line if we see that there is some value in it. We need to see VIPs doing it, consistently and proudly, and taking only what is their due at their turn. And we need to see that by doing it ourselves, we’ll receive our due at our turn – whether that’s a place in school, a job, a hospital bed, an airline ticket, or a burger.
Ranjani Iyer Mohanty is a writer and editor based in New Delhi. When not writing offbeat op-eds or editing marvelous manuscripts on Management Information Systems, she can sometimes be found waiting patiently in a queue.
By Ranjani Iyer Mohanty
I was standing in line at the McDonald’s in Delhi’s Vasant Vihar one day last week. It wasn’t lunchtime yet so there wasn’t a crowd. I stood at one of the counters, behind a woman who was being served, and waited. A minute later, two young ladies came in. As I watched, they nonchalantly came and stood in line – in front of me. When I politely but firmly pointed out that I was in line, they first seemed surprised that I would have the bad manners to bring this up. Then, seeing the smoke emanating from my ears, they quickly apologized and went to stand at the back.
This is not the first time this has happened and I’m sure it won’t be the last. In India, I’ve had people butt in front of me in lines at stores, banks, hospitals, and airports. OK, so I may look like a patsy but I’m sure I’m not the only one who has experienced this. Most people also drive in this same way; instead of driving in lanes, we are constantly trying to edge ahead of the car in front. Why is it that so many Indians try to jump the queue?
We live in a hugely-populated, resource-constrained country. As a result of that, two things may be happening. One is that we’ve stood in so many queues during our lives, we’re tired of standing in queues and we just don’t want to do it anymore. The other is that we’ve seen that if we wait patiently in a queue, by the time our turn comes up, the item is sold out. Have you heard the saying, “Good things come to those who wait”? Not here, you haven’t. In this environment, he who hesitates is lost for sure. With 1.2 billion people eyeing the same McAloo Tikki, we can’t afford to stand in line.
It could also be because our society is very hierarchical. We intrinsically believe in inequality. Thomas Friedman may have hallucinations of a flat world but ours is vertical – based on money, influence, education, caste, skin color, and the list goes on. We’ve all had the experience of waiting in a long line and seeing someone ushered through before us; no doubt a friend of the DM, GM, or PM. “First come, first served” has little meaning here. It’s more like “VIP come, VIP served.” If I’m more important than you, why should I stand in line behind you? My time is more precious and my needs more valid. Surely I deserve it faster, and more of it too.
But what happens to those of us who are not VIPs, or even IPs? Maybe we are just Ps. Then the trick is to pretend we’re more important than the other guys. Berkeley professor Cameron Anderson suggests that “overconfidence provides adaptive social benefits” such as “higher peer-perceptions of ability and elevated social status.” More simply put, in the immortal words of some modern philosopher, “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull—-.” If you look important, you may get away with jumping the queue – most of the time.
A story I recently heard captures this well. In a busy airport, an airline check-in agent was trying to help a long queue of passengers. An important-looking man marched straight up to the counter and demanded to be served immediately because he had a flight to catch. The agent politely told him that all the people in line were waiting for the same flight so if he’d kindly stand in the queue, she’d be happy to help him. Angry, he asked her, “Do you know who I am?!” The agent looked at him, then switched on the intercom and made an announcement: “I have a gentleman here at the counter who does not know who he is. Could someone please help him?” This received roars of laughter from the passengers waiting in line. The man was furious and said to the agent through clenched teeth: “F— you!” She sweetly replied, “You’ll have to stand in line for that, too.”
Unfortunately, in India such egalitarian airline agents are mostly only found in joke, legend, and song. Often the self-important person gets away with it and for this, the service providers must also take the blame. I’ve had several experiences where store clerks have ignored the person standing in line in front of me and tried to serve me first, because I assume I looked higher up on the pecking order. I’ve had to again politely but firmly point out that they were in line before me.
Let’s face it: In India, jumping the queue can indeed be a useful survival skill. However, as India’s population continues to grow and resources become even more scarce, our ability to stand in a queue to await our turn – whether on foot waiting for water, in a store waiting for service, or in a car waiting for the green light –will not just grease the wheels of social interaction, it will allow products and services and traffic to flow more efficiently.
It could also prevent queue rage, road rage, and one day, perhaps, even riots in the street. But we’ll only consider standing in line if we see that there is some value in it. We need to see VIPs doing it, consistently and proudly, and taking only what is their due at their turn. And we need to see that by doing it ourselves, we’ll receive our due at our turn – whether that’s a place in school, a job, a hospital bed, an airline ticket, or a burger.
Ranjani Iyer Mohanty is a writer and editor based in New Delhi. When not writing offbeat op-eds or editing marvelous manuscripts on Management Information Systems, she can sometimes be found waiting patiently in a queue.
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire