No honor

One thing I respect about Germany is the honor system. The system trusts people to observe regulations by themselves. People honor the trust placed in them and act responsibly. For example, public transport has no ticket checks. Commuters can buy tickets at vending machines placed at almost every bus/tram stop. Markets/malls don’t have baggage counters. They simply trust you not to shoplift. Coming from India where immediate solution to any problem is more rules and restrictions, I really appreciate this, and so would anyone, I think. So one incident last week amused me.

I was walking around with friends, discussing our experiences in Dresden. We crossed paths with another Indian guy. He came up to us and started talking (trying to sound like a cool Delhiite by inserting expletives in every sentence). It was a cold night and after some time everyone had a heavy bladder. We found a public toilet nearby. It was a small portable cabin with 'self cleaning toilet' written on it. Upon inserting a 50 cent coin in a slot, the automatic door slid open and we were surprised to see a clean, nice smelling toilet (seriously!), just like the ones on flights. “Have to hand it to Germans. They have got even public toilets right. What would it take to have these in India?”, my friend said. But this new guy was not pleased. “Are you serious?” he said, “you want to spend 35 rupees to pee when there are so many trees around? Here, hold my beer, I’ll be back in a minute”. We were amazed. This guy was a post-graduate in medicine, had lived outside India in two different countries for almost 8 years and earned much more than I do. And he had no regard for a basic rule, in a country of rule loving people that provides clean public toilets. He then proceeded to tell how many times he had done the heroic deed. I wish I had told him that he is an asshole. The unfortunate fact is that there is no way to put sense into such people. Have you ever come across them?

Till next time, tschüss!