From the streets of Granada, the historical city of Spain  

Dr Abdul Hai

The central playground of the University of Granada is next to our science building. When I come to the laboratory in the morning, I see two teams or four teams playing football. And if I am late finishing work, even if I leave the lab at 11 pm and head home, I still see students or teachers playing football. I often stop for a moment and look in amazement at how they are passing the ball at a fast pace and sending it into the opponent's goal. Except for Sunday, I have never seen a day when those thousand-power floodlights around the playground are not lit from evening.

You may ask me why I say two teams or four teams. Because the actual playground is only one, with two goal posts on both sides, where only two teams can play – this is normal. But what is exceptional is – dividing the field into two parts and installing four more goal posts. As a result, when there is a final competition on the same field, only two teams play. But for practice, two teams play in one half of the same field and two more teams play in the other half. Again, why are we talking about students or teachers – sometimes I see 20-25 year old boys playing. Sometimes I see very handsome and bearded 45-50 year old men also playing. So I believe – not just students play there, the teachers are not far behind in the game. Again, the metro rail line passes right next to this playground. On the other side of it remains a swimming pool and after that there is another playground – which is reserved for girls’ sports.

You know that I am practicing to participate in the 20 kilometer run in the Bonn Marathon this year. So every week I fix a place, which is ten kilometers away in each direction from the heart of Granada city – so that I can run ten kilometers to that place and then come ten kilometers back. The most interesting thing is – no matter where I go from the city center, after only 5/6 kilometers I see the road going up the hill. And the engineers in Spain are so unaware or unskilled that they have not made a separate path for pedestrians to walk along these mountainous roads. However, the reason behind this may also be that no Spaniard would ever walk up such a steep road – that is why the engineers have not made any arrangements for pedestrians on that path. However, because of this, almost every week I have to run at least 4 to 6 kilometers along the car lane, taking a lot of risks. Of course, when I see a couple of bicycles also riding on the same path – I get some courage in my heart that, I am not alone, but in this country it can be assumed that it is allowed.

Almost the same kind of laxity is noticeable in the case of followign the traffic signals in the city. There may be a red light on any road for pedestrians - but pedestrians look left and right and cross the road, if there are no cars. Of course, if dogs or children are with someone, they wait until the green light turns on, at least to teach the dog or child. However, such an attitude is never seen anywhere in Germany. Whether there is a car or not, Germans stand still on one side of the road as long as the red signal is on.

You know, even after living in Europe for almost two decades, I am still very impressed by the bus drivers here. In most cities here, I see bus drivers wearing suits and ties and driving. But that doesn't mean they are so arrogant in their behavior with passengers. Rather, if there is any disabled passenger intended to get on or off the bus, these smart drivers leave their seat and take out the ram in the middle of the bus and help the passenger, including the wheelchair, to get on the bus. Again, when the passenger wants to get off at the station,  the smart and skilled driver sets the ram himself and gets the passenger off the bus with his own hands. Also, if necessary, the driver can press a switch to lower the bus towards the gate by about a foot, so that children, the elderly or sick passengers can easily get on or off the bus. Another big difference I mark here that, apart from the driver, there is no second or third assistant i.e. helper or conductor in the bus, truck, or lorry. But in our country, the driver is considered to be absolutely supreme boss and no vehicle can run without two or three of his supporting staff. And we all know the behavior of the driver, helper or conductor in our country very well.

You may ask what is the reason for such a huge difference between people of the same profession in two countries? I have also thought about it quite a lot and what I think is education, social values ​​and the rule of law. On the one hand, no one here can become a driver or you can say start working in any profession without receiving adequate education and training. On the other hand, they get the opportunity to learn by watching the behavior of everyone else in the society. Above all, if any passenger or service seeker is deprived of fair service – ​​and if he/she takes it to the police or the appropriate authorities, then that driver or professional must be punished. Of course, in this case, there must be awareness among the service seekers or citizens that they should be fully aware of their rights and the process of realizing their rights and be uncompromising. Therefore, in our country too, if the quality of service is to reach a satisfactory level, these must be coordinated.