Sunday, July 14, 2013

WE - Need To Change

In the middle of Navi Mumbai traffic, and in the midst of rains, continuous honks of the cars behind me are driving me crazy. Sounded like I am at dire mistake. Yes !! I was not jumping the signals in spite of no policemen around.  And people behind me are of-course eager to do that. Most of these people are rushing to their offices having white collar jobs. Looks like jumping signals is such a norm here.

I remember while working in Talawade [Pune], we used to get stuck in long lasting traffic jams. There were some infrastructural issues for sure, but it was often made worsen by the sophisticated class pulling over their vehicles on the wrong side, creating a big time catch 22 situation. Over-speeding on highways, parking on the wrong place, drunken driving are just some other instances where our responsible behavior is so evident. Sometime back, I was meeting my friends who were boasting of  not giving tolls, and paying penalties with clear sense of proud. Wow!! Looks like we have adopted ourselves with breaking the rules very well.

With this "WE", I am not referring to Indians. No!! I am specifically referring to the educated class. The class who is considered to be most responsible section of our society. According to some critics this is the section which will shape India's bright future. Is it only the traffic where we break the rules? Other instances like, submitting fake bills/documents by individuals for tax evasion is such a common act in IT organizations.

Are we responsible for the ill-managed state of our country to any extent? We always talk about politicians breaking the law. We criticize them and held them responsible for the ill-managed state of our country. If it comes to breaking the laws and rules, how are we different from the politicians and other law breakers. Do we have a right to criticize the law breakers who pop up in our media now and then?

Some people might have an opinion that the rules, they are breaking are petty in nature. May be yes! But more than that we are just opportunistic. Wherever we can escape laws for our benefit, we go for that. As we belong to the educated class who are in general, less "risk takers", we don't opt for the high risk law breaking activity. Wherever there is less chance to get caught, or a less penalty, we follow the trail. Our mentality is nothing different then the other severe law breakers.

We need to change this!! We need to come out of this Hypocrisy. We need to change our MENTALITY. If we represent the section who is considered most responsible, we have to justify it. We have to stop breaking the rules, however petty it is. That's the only way our future generations can be groomed to behave responsibly. Its not the educated class but its the "Responsible Class" which is going to shape future of our country. A bright one!!

To support this,

Today I take an oath, that I wont be involved in breaking any rules/law however petty the rule/law is. 

No comments: