A Step towards honesty

From childhood, there is one lesson undoubtedly taught to each one of us- “Speak Truth”. Despite of this lesson being taught, we still have so many corrupt politicians, dishonest administrators, fraud businessmen in our country. Prima facie, there isn't any direct link between these two statements.  I am not certain how these two can logically be linked, but here is what I think.

Let us go back to the age group of 3-5 years and try to recall some of those incidents where our parents lied about our age to evade the expense of our tickets for cinema halls, trains, buses, museums, etc.  Though I do remember some of mine, but would like to cite an incident which I observed as a third party at the age of 24. We were standing in a queue to buy tickets at a Cathedral in Scotland and there was a couple (Indian) along with 2 boys (one in stroller and one of his own) right before us. Now this lady at the ticket counter politely asked the man, “What is the age of your son in the stroller sir?” The man replied, “2 years”. His innocent wife shouted angrily (thinking his husband doesn't even know the age of their son), “No. He is 3 and a half”. The man got furious hearing his wife say that and starting yelling at her (in Hindi off course), “Can you please keep your mouth shut”. Turning back to the lady at the counter, he firmly reiterated, “He is 2”. The lady nodded and asked him to pay for 3 tickets. Now what got unnoticed here was the reaction of the elder kid standing petrified next to his fighting parents. What lesson he learnt there? That to lie is not a bad thing and in fact a necessity if it save your family money.

This learning continues throughout our lives when we see our parents faking our age at the birth certificates, making false certificates, evading taxes, leveraging jacks to get us college seats, jobs, etc.  But then why we, the same people, criticize and accuse the politicians, officials and administrators of being dishonest and corrupt. After all, they are also human beings, who have gone through the same circle of life wishing good for their families. Only the additional angle is that they are little lucky ones to be at a larger helm of things. The scale of their operation may be enormous for them, but the modus operandi is the same. Be dishonest for the benefit of your family.

Moreover, such people earn great reverence when they belong to our own social circles. We look up to them when they leverage their official perquisites for their family’s welfare (deploying official servants at home, using official cars to drop their kids to schools, etc.) 

May be our criticism should come with an asterisk – “terms and conditions apply”. If we are the ones getting benefited with the dishonesty, it’s requisite, else we hate it. Can we please take a step towards at least being honest in our opinion first? Do we encourage it or we want to contain it? Can we please be honest on our stance that if given a chance, wont we be corrupt?

Who is listening anyway..

“Don't waste your time with explanations: people only hear what they want to hear.” The statement said by Paulo Coelho was merely a thought, rather a very good thought for me until few days back. However, during last few days I have begun wondering if this statement is more than a thought especially in context of the beliefs and practices being followed in the society. These days many of us talk modern values and opinions being injected into Indian society and mindsets guiding them towards a better nation. But who is listening to these, is a big question. For instance, our man the very Mr. Dependable, “AMIR KHAN” started a raging show earlier this year Satyamev Jayate with apparent conviction of putting across new thoughts on the standing societal issues. Evidently, the penultimate goal of the show was to infuse moral values in the society and appeal to the mass to do away with the wrong or may be immoral practices being followed. Apart from this touted television show, so many people, authors and speaker try to put across their point and guide people towards better social life in various forums. However, the recent honor killing of the 28 year old boy from Bulandshahr, clearly authenticates the point that no one is actually listening. From a show, (intended to influence masses) which failed to influence even the family of the people who were actually brought into the show, how can we expect a mass evolution. The truth is that for any change to happen, one first need to realize that the change is essential. This in turn underpins that the present ways being followed are wrong. So till the time you acknowledge that what you are doing is wrong, there is no scope for any change or improvement. And who will make them realize of their wrong doings? Do we really think that these shows will make any difference? I deliberated over this incident for long and realized that perhaps the audience of these shows is only the people who already know all this. They are the only ones who can relate to it and appreciate it.  The ones, who are actually involved in these evil practices, will never ever pay any head to it. They might simply change the channel rubbishing the show and its propagations and probably go ahead to watch some TV serial propagating domestic violence with ghunghat wali bahu and atyachari saas. Ironically, they don’t even learn anything from those serials as well. Had they realized what is being shown is wrong I guess the dowry, extortion and various domestic violence cases would have at least gone down. Hence, seemingly the statement “people only hear what they want to hear” holds definitely true. 

Education is missing so many things..

Instead of emphasizing on including sex education in Indian education system (which anyway majority of the people learn by experience/age/curiosity), one topic which should definitely be included is “TRAFFIC RULE & SENSE”

Even in most of the metropolitan cities, where the majority of the people are expected to be educated, lack basic traffic sense and tend to break traffic rules as often as possible.

Understandably, the traffic police and administration is to be blamed equally, but being educated, owning cars worth 5-20 lac, a rudimentary  level of road sense such as looking behind before you turn, n opening your car door randomly to spit on the road, not drive on the wrong side, obey traffic rules, is still expected !!