Queues - Lesson Learnt While Waiting in One #ATOZCHALLENGE

Queues. Something that we as Indians will never really understand. The concept seems positively alien to us. Tell people to make a queue and wait for something and you will see leadership qualities evolving all around you. There will be people telling you why they should be prioritized over others

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My most recent encounter with this annoying attitude that we seem to possess as a nation was at the Aircel Chennai Open 2016 Finals at the SDAT stadium in Nungambakkan, Chennai. The event management and planning was very poor, inefficient and chaotic. People, who had bought online tickets had to get validated and get actual tickets at one counter while the entrance itself had a long queue for the security checks. 

Now there were three counters open where tickets can be collected. With people being people, there were three long queues at the counter with lot of people trying to barge in the middle, some through friends while some were more bold and just joined in the middl. Anyone who have studied queuing theory will know that single line is the fastest model. Yet, we see this happening almost everywhere. We have to give credit to airline and bank industry in this regard for they have somehow managed to curb all natural instincts and successfully implement a single line system. 

There are occasions when we realize how too much use of something good can turn sour. This was one of them. After collecting the ticket, we headed towards entrance to see another long queue. To their credit, it was a single file. But as we neared the entrance, we saw a lot of people who were stepping aside and letting people move front. It was then I realized that the famous Indian Jugaad instincts had kicked in. People who came in groups split among themselves and were trying to reach the goal simultaneously. Lot of people near the gate were waiting in the queue without getting their tickets from the other counter ! This is what you call resource optimization.