Feb., 1948] EDITORIAL '

91

Indian Medical Gazette

FEBRUARY

INTERNATIONAL ENEMY NO. 1

HURRY

This common enemy of the entire human

race so far has claimed more success in the West

than in the East. Once upon a time said a

guide who had rushed an oriental potentate over half of New York in half a day, in all manner of transports, over all manner of ways, by all

manner of devices for rising and falling :

Your Highness we have saved half an hour.

Asked His Highness :

Having saved half an hour, will you please let me know what you propose to do with

it ?

The fell enemy, however, is now overpowering the East too, steadily, unremittingly and

mercilessly, aided by a host of fifth columnists. The latter consist of imitating apes of means, merchants dealing in motor cars, owners of air lines, and smaller fry like newspaper boys and railway porters. Rushing round of people wearing collars and

ties or carrying dainty handbags is pathetic. They must go to several clubs every evening even for a mild daily inebriation. Once a week

for greater loss of consciousness they must run round in their cars for a whole night, and knock down pedestrians and. even policemen. Their

real trouble is restlessness born of some

repression or other in the rather rapidly chang- ing environment after the First World War.

They would benefit by psychoanalysis. The pictorial news of speed trials at Daytona,

after the First World War, made the world, speed minded. In the first post-war depression the capitalists exploited the idea for keeping labour amused and contented (with the addition of the dole). They lionized speed makers, gave them fabulous wealth in prizes and raised them to knighthood. The 1 bread and circus ' of the last days of the crumbling Roman Empire were made use of again by another empire ! The infection spread to the East. Ordinary

motor cars have begun to look like those

designed for speed. They are streamlined but the shape serves no useful purpose. The speed allowed in towns does not need any modification in shape. They are made low so that they may go gripping the ground. The speed allowed, again, does not need such a particular grip on the ground. If they are taken out of town their low bottoms are likely to be ripped open by stones and brickbats which carters are in the habit of leaving behind. In the low-lying parts

of a town water enters their engines during a heavy shower of rain, even in the garage. Their

low seats sloping behind to the level of the floor of the car thrust one's knees into one's chin. A

well-nourished man becomes severely embarrassed with respect to his abdominal cavity even on an empty stomach : after a meal he runs risks of

serious consequences. Their abnormal length is

not only unnecessary but a public nuisance. The

speed allowed or even possible does not need the length as a steadying factor. In turning they hold up traffic over longer stretches of road and for longer periods than do cars of ordinary length. One wonders why they are not taxed specially to pay for extra traffic police. The '

one .piece '

body of such cars with roof touching one's head is like an oven in the middle of the day. The total metal used in such a body is actually less than in the old-fashioned body of an old- fashioned and comfortable car. Yet the price is comparatively more. The tragedy is that this

price is paid willingly because of the craze for speed or even the semblance of speed ! Air travel has its place in the modern world

and in India of to-day. Without it our leaders could not have accomplished so much since 15th August, 1947. Ordinary citizens, however, can do without it easily. In fact, unless the cloth situation, hotel accommodation and laundry facilities return to their pre-war level, or at least improve considerably, air travel creates more

problems than it solves as far as one's personal comfort is concerned. The craze for speed is one of the problems. One act of hurry leads to another. This

sequence of events is exploited by London news- paper boys who run to sell their papers. The

railway porters do likewise to create confusion and make passengers lose things at the termina- tion of their journey. The situation was

specially comic at European ports in times of

perfect peace. Passengers with reserved berths in boat trains found themselves thrown into dis- order and had to tip liberally to have their kit moved. Yet, if one waited one never lost one's berth or one's kit. The boat trains always waited until every reserved berth was occupied. The newspaper boys cannot run in all parts

of India in all weathers and have modified the

technique of their European opposite numbers. They transform the energy into an assault and thrust their bundle of papers into one's face

regardless of whether one is hailing a taxi, watch- ing an approaching tramcar, bus or train, or

talking to one's friend. By the time one has time to retaliate they have disappeared. The

railway porters have also modified the techniques of their European opposite numbers. They, greatly outnumbering the packages to be carried, descend upon the passenger quickly and start a war of words among themselves. The fast stream of words, intelligible or unintelligible, sets the pace and the rest follows. That the expectation of life has increased after

the First World War and is likely to increase

92 THE INDIAN MEDICAL GAZETTE [Feb., 1948

further when things have settled down again, after the Second World War, is common know- ledge. So far as human attainments are con-

cerned there should be less need for hurry, not

more, than there was in 1914. Human needs too

should be satisfied in less time than before

because of development in machinery. Rushing round for most people only satisfies a craze and, what is worse, destroys leisure and its broaden- ing influence on the mind. It is quite capable of reducing the intelligence quotient of a nation in time. It is an atavism reverting one to

nomadic life when man collected food instead of growing it. The expectation of life would rise further

still if man did not wear out his heart by making it do the extra work of thousands of utterly unnecessary beats every day. The span of life

appears to be inversely proportional to the pulse rate.

Vulgar haste and noise are not civilization. Fortune sells many things to the hasty, which

she gives to the slow?Bacon. t