In today’s age when boundaries are shrinking and the whole world is being transformed into a global village, there are some pertinent questions that seem to evoke mixed reactions in people. I’m obviously one of them (the fact that I am writing about it is proof enough)!
Lately, with an increase in the number of people who globe-trot on business or for pleasure, there are a lot of comparisons that are drawn between our country and the developed nations. Some of the ubiquitous comparisons are over road traffic, pollution levels, hygiene, red tape in the government services, etc. Educated people seem to have arguments about why our country does not measure up to the countries that we try to emulate. And such questions seem to make good dinner topics. However, I start to think about all these things more deeply once in a while and I feel the reasons for our problems are multi-faceted. For instance, traffic unruliness! I am sure we have all faced it. I see many people have started to wear seat belts voluntarily but, when it comes to obeying rules, we all seem to become a little hypocritical. We try to be (if not be!) very polite and courteous and drive sensibly but after a while, when we find that our good behavior is not letting us get to our destinations safely or on time (leave alone getting credit for it), we seem to think that existence is about 'survival of the fittest' and we get into the rat race. Now, who do we hold responsible here? Is it the nation or the people who do not have the conviction to hold on until better times befall us? Most of the times, I am tempted to think that 'Common Sense' is what is not common to all and that is at the root of the problem! Now that again cannot plainly be blamed on people when more than half the population of this country are waging a battle everyday to put food in their plates as against learning to read and write.
One more example is the constant complaints we get, from friends and relatives who live abroad, about the way people try to bypass the systems here, to get things done. Agreed; there is an easier way out for everything in our country, but is it just the people's fault alone? We start by trying to fill form after tedious form and then run from pillar to post to find the right person to give it to. And, through all this we get little help, and what little assistance we get is with a lot of reluctance from people who seem to think of their public postings as pedestals of pride. Privatisation was touted as the panacea for all the misgivings of the public system. However, time has revealed that customer service is more an attitude of an individual and culture of a company than the private or public status of an organization. A system is beneficial to people only when it works efficiently, and when it does not, people just find better ways to get the job done. Now, turning to all the NRIs for whom home-coming is a nightmare of long queues to get important things sorted out (like PAN cards & Voter IDs), India is just a land of never-ending problems. But, I feel that it is very difficult for people outside of a system to understand the way the system works. How you see it is not exactly how the system works or does not work. Also, think about it; if you (meaning one of the NRI's) were here going about all your daily responsibilities and then also have to brave the vagaries of the system to get your work done, how much patience would you have to fall in line all the time? of course, I am not glorifying the system or the people(who haven't made it to the NRI status) of the country, but I am just asking people to think about the country and its whole working in a much broader perspective. In a country where more than 50% of the population do not even know how it feels to be self-sufficient, how can the country's system place more emphasis over issuing hi-tech identity cards. Isn't it more important to press more people into services to eradicate communicable diseases and make education reach the billions and the likes?
I know this sounds like lauding the status quo instead of trying to encourage improvement, but that it surely not my intention. Instead, it is just my opinion that we should feel proud of what we have achieved as a nation in the last decade instead of constantly holding the country at fault for all problems. We should accept the blemishes as much as we ennoble the beauty of this nation and take responsibility for action whenever and where ever we can. And, come to think of it, isn't this exactly the way human beings themselves evolve(accept and ameliorate)?
Picture courtesy: http://www.worldmapstore.com/products/Know_India.html
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