"This is India"
It is a phrase that almost all of us - 'Indians' have learned to use at both the extreme situations - the first being if we do something extra-ordinary or if we don't do anything too simple to be done by anybody. For example, if India accomplishes any great feat like organizing the CWG 2010 or creates a huge scandal even in such a prestegious international event, we use the same phrase - 'This is India'.
It is the same phrase that we unfortunately use as an excuse whenever we have to or want to break any rule like the ones we break while we are on the road. The irony is, even the highly educated of us (usually with a Bachelor or a Masters degree) also do that instead of saying "I'll improve my india by following the rules". The reason I took the example of the traffic rules is because it is something that all of us suffer from every single day but still don't want to contribute towards improving it.
The second reason is i've had a first hand experience with a friend of mine asking me to break a traffic rule (ride on the wrong side) and when I refused to do so, he used the golden phrase of "Arre yaar, yeh India hai, yahaan sab kuch chalta hai". Frankly, I felt like stopping then and there, asking him to get down and slap him for saying that. But just told him that I'm not going to do it and asked him to stop repeating that, atleast in front of me.
There is a small folk story similar to the situation that we are in and I would like to share it.
There was a village that was hit by drought for a few consecutive years and the life of the villagers was becoming difficult day by day. One of the elders in the village had a dream that if they offer a big container full of milk to the village god, they would have good rains that year.
He told the same to his fellow villagers and all of them agreed to gather milk and they kept a huge container in the middle of the village and decided to collect the milk for two days and offer it to the god on the third day.
On the third day, when all of them thought that the container was full of milk and decided to offer it to the god, to their surprise, the container was full of water and there was not even a minute trace of milk in it.
What had happened was, every villager thought that as rest of the village is going to put milk into the container, it doesn't make any difference if he/she put water in it. And, unfortunately none of them thought what would happen if all of them had the same thought.
We are also, in a lot of ways, behaving very much similar to the villagers. We always think that its ok if I alone break the rule as others will follow them. But it is actually the other way round. People just tend to follow what the other person does. They'll follow you if you jump a signal and also stop at that signal if you do so. So, its a choice for us - we can either be a hero trying to jump a signal and risk our lives as well as others or be a dumb guy who safely stops at a red signal. In those terms, I am a real dumb guy (atleast that's what others view me as) who thinks its actually healthy to follow rules and does so.
What we think of is to get everything corrected by the system all by itself and forget that the 'System' is nothing but a group of individuals like you and me. If we want the system to change something, we have to put in our efforts, just one step at a time. And those steps are neither difficult nor do they cost us even a single paisa.
The major reason we are like this is that most of us don't think of a few tiny positive things which if followed, show a huge improvements. We always keep looking for an excuse of following a guy who jumps a signal and following him rather than stopping at a signal and wait for it to go green the next time. We lack the guts to do what is right and ask others to do it.
I think it is time for us to stop using that excuse and discipline ourselves and make all our lives better. To start with, i'm following these small things most of which were actually taught to us during our initial days of schooling which we have forgotten as we grew old:
1. no spitting at public places
2. no throwing of trash at public places
3. walking on footpath
4. following trafic rules
i. stopping at red signals
ii. stopping behind the line at the signals
iii. starting only when the light goes green
iv. no unnecessary honking (stay a bit patient, everybody wants to get off the road as soon as possible)
v. not blocking the free left/right turns
vi. staying on the correct side of the road before taking a turn instead of staying on the other side of the turn and trying to cut across at the end moment
vii. no riding/driving on the wrong side of the road
I really feel good when I follow these and I totally ignore when people try to embarass me while following them.
It is a phrase that almost all of us - 'Indians' have learned to use at both the extreme situations - the first being if we do something extra-ordinary or if we don't do anything too simple to be done by anybody. For example, if India accomplishes any great feat like organizing the CWG 2010 or creates a huge scandal even in such a prestegious international event, we use the same phrase - 'This is India'.
It is the same phrase that we unfortunately use as an excuse whenever we have to or want to break any rule like the ones we break while we are on the road. The irony is, even the highly educated of us (usually with a Bachelor or a Masters degree) also do that instead of saying "I'll improve my india by following the rules". The reason I took the example of the traffic rules is because it is something that all of us suffer from every single day but still don't want to contribute towards improving it.
The second reason is i've had a first hand experience with a friend of mine asking me to break a traffic rule (ride on the wrong side) and when I refused to do so, he used the golden phrase of "Arre yaar, yeh India hai, yahaan sab kuch chalta hai". Frankly, I felt like stopping then and there, asking him to get down and slap him for saying that. But just told him that I'm not going to do it and asked him to stop repeating that, atleast in front of me.
There is a small folk story similar to the situation that we are in and I would like to share it.
There was a village that was hit by drought for a few consecutive years and the life of the villagers was becoming difficult day by day. One of the elders in the village had a dream that if they offer a big container full of milk to the village god, they would have good rains that year.
He told the same to his fellow villagers and all of them agreed to gather milk and they kept a huge container in the middle of the village and decided to collect the milk for two days and offer it to the god on the third day.
On the third day, when all of them thought that the container was full of milk and decided to offer it to the god, to their surprise, the container was full of water and there was not even a minute trace of milk in it.
What had happened was, every villager thought that as rest of the village is going to put milk into the container, it doesn't make any difference if he/she put water in it. And, unfortunately none of them thought what would happen if all of them had the same thought.
We are also, in a lot of ways, behaving very much similar to the villagers. We always think that its ok if I alone break the rule as others will follow them. But it is actually the other way round. People just tend to follow what the other person does. They'll follow you if you jump a signal and also stop at that signal if you do so. So, its a choice for us - we can either be a hero trying to jump a signal and risk our lives as well as others or be a dumb guy who safely stops at a red signal. In those terms, I am a real dumb guy (atleast that's what others view me as) who thinks its actually healthy to follow rules and does so.
What we think of is to get everything corrected by the system all by itself and forget that the 'System' is nothing but a group of individuals like you and me. If we want the system to change something, we have to put in our efforts, just one step at a time. And those steps are neither difficult nor do they cost us even a single paisa.
The major reason we are like this is that most of us don't think of a few tiny positive things which if followed, show a huge improvements. We always keep looking for an excuse of following a guy who jumps a signal and following him rather than stopping at a signal and wait for it to go green the next time. We lack the guts to do what is right and ask others to do it.
I think it is time for us to stop using that excuse and discipline ourselves and make all our lives better. To start with, i'm following these small things most of which were actually taught to us during our initial days of schooling which we have forgotten as we grew old:
1. no spitting at public places
2. no throwing of trash at public places
3. walking on footpath
4. following trafic rules
i. stopping at red signals
ii. stopping behind the line at the signals
iii. starting only when the light goes green
iv. no unnecessary honking (stay a bit patient, everybody wants to get off the road as soon as possible)
v. not blocking the free left/right turns
vi. staying on the correct side of the road before taking a turn instead of staying on the other side of the turn and trying to cut across at the end moment
vii. no riding/driving on the wrong side of the road
I really feel good when I follow these and I totally ignore when people try to embarass me while following them.
1 comment:
Novel thought. And I agree with you fully.
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