Regressive Progression

1. A six figure salary.
2. A top of the line luxury sedan.
3. An MBA from an Ivy League college.
4. Excellent school education from a reputed school.
5. Brought up in a loving family with excellent moral values.
   
   AND THEN YOU PARK YOUR CAR IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD WAITING FOR YOUR FRIEND TO HOP IN WHILE YOU TALK ON THE PHONE
   
   Wouldn’t you say that with that MBA degree and the strong childhood background, one would have some sense of civic values? Or does driving a Mercedes S-Class entitle you to use a public road like the footpath through your backyard garden?
   
   I remember studying Civics in school. And honestly, I used to detest writing the exam. I used to ask myself, “How in the world is this goddamned subject going make any difference to my life?” “What do I care about ‘duties of a responsible citizen’?” Now after these many years, the practice (or the lack of it) of what was in those textbooks, is seen in daily life.

I will take the scene at a traffic light to show what I mean:

1. Turning without indicators
2. Not allowing pedestrians to cross at traffic lights
3. Pedestrians crossing without the signal being green
4. Honking when there are still 30 seconds to go for the light to turn green or when you know you are stuck in 200 vehicles traffic jam
5. Lack of lane discipline
   
   The list goes on…
   
   Here is another scene that I encountered while on a long distance train, which portrays the other spectrum of the society. This was the general compartment:
   There was this group of students, carrying IIT Coaching textbooks, who entered the compartment without tickets. Then they take out their ‘Made in China’ cell phones, and suddenly there are songs blaring throughout the whole compartment. Not that the passengers aren’t glaring at them for playing the songs, still I heard everything from Backstreet Boys to Bhojpuri hits, with a sprinkle of “We don’t need no education”.
   
   Another site to behold was such. A family, of three kids and parents, was sitting across from my berth. By the looks of their clothes and their manner of speaking, I would say that they were pretty poor. Throughout the journey, the kids were looking at others eating a variety of goodies and I could see the desire in their eyes. So I was really taken by surprise when I saw the father take out a nice sleek slider Nokia (couldn’t catch the model). Well, things would been still acceptable but then I saw the mother answering another call on a Reliance (recognized it by the ringtone). However, the cherry on the cake was that when the smallest of the kids wanted to go the loo, the mother just slid his pants and asked him to piss under the berth!!!!!!!!
   
   The point I am making is that when it comes to the educated upper section of the society, it seems like having an MBA or owning a car is a trade-off for civic sense and values. And similarly, towards the lower half of the society, having access to more amenities, service and opportunities is the trade-off. But in all this self-development and empowerment of the masses, aren’t we forgetting that what is most required is the imbibing of basic social and civic values.
   
   It seems like this lack of civic sense permeates all sections of the society. We hear about rapes being committed in all strata’s of the society. There are corporate frauds at one end and cattle theft in the other. We see the same traffic sense from rickshaw drivers to BMW owners. We are all the same in our core values, irrespective of our postal addresses.
   
   We are progressing, but regressively!!!!!

If Only...

The official death toll, though conflicting, stands at 183. The number of injured stands at 287. While I cannot possibly imagine what the families of those lost and injured are going through, I pray that God gives you the strength to accept what has happened. My heart cries with you.

I offer this as my reaction as a young citizen of this country. I am not, in any way, asserting that these are the solutions to the crisis...however, what I am suggesting is that these are questions we need to ask ourselves before we can even think of any solution.

Politicians

If only politicians would sit at their desks and sign their resignation letters, accepting their incompetence instead of visiting the disaster sights to offer their petty interviews and show their pretentious faces....

If only politicians were interested in the interests of the Nation instead of fulfilling their personal and party agendas...

If only politicians were accountable for how they govern instead of playing politics over the bleeding bodies of those shot and wounded...

If only politicians would hug the son of late ATS Chief Hemant Karkare instead of equating the loss of life with how much money they can offer in compensation...

If only politicians would treat us as Human Beings instead of Vote Banks...

You and Me

If only you and me would look in the mirror and asks ourselves how we have served our country in 20 or so years of our lives...

If only you and me come together as the educated GenNext with the resolve to contribute to our great Nation instead making hollow claims of “Youngistaan” in soft drink ads...

If only you and me were aware enough to file RTI applications, raising questions, instead of scrapping on Orkut and Facebook...

If only you and me would sit and have constructive discussions about our polity with such interest as we discuss the ‘hook ups’ and ‘break ups’ in college...

If only you and me had the determination to join the army and serve the Nation instead of sitting within the protective walls of our modern age high rise offices...

If only you and me would join the civil and administrative services instead of sitting for foreign posting MNC placements...

If only you and me had the resolve to join the police forces instead of commenting on their incompetence and inefficiency...

If only you and me would try lying on our stomach for two days without food instead of going on national television and questioning the operations conducted by the security forces...

If only you and me would have the civic sense to drive within speed limits and not cut lanes instead of blaming traffic jams...

If only you and me would have the courage to accept our own infirmities first before shouting out slogans and displaying banners at peace marches...

If only you and me take this opportunity to bring about a change at this age when we can make that difference instead of spending our present lives drinking, smoking and partying....

The People

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who are to blame...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who vote the politicians into power instead of blaming the system...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to change ourselves from within before trying to the change the system...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to stand united in the face of terror...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to stop blaming a particular religion for the face-less religion-less acts or terror...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to rebuild the faith in secularism in our beloved country...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to use our education as a weapon to fight the filthy politics of this country...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to be responsible citizens and turn out at polling booths to vote instead of blaming the government...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to be patient enough to get checked at stations for our own safety instead of cursing the queue and the inefficiency of the police force...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to be patient enough and wait for government offices to do the work instead of paying bribes and then calling the system corrupt...

If only the people realise that it is ‘WE’ who have to take the blame for the divisive politics in this country...

If only the people realise that it is about ‘WE’ and not ‘ME’...

If only ENOUGH was ENOUGH the first time lives were lost to terrorism...
If only...

A Tribute

The year was 2006. I had been in Mumbai for just one week. College had just begun. I was still trying to absorb the niceties and the vagaries that this new city was throwing at me. The pace at which the city ran was the most striking feature as I had been used to a relatively calm and ‘at my own pace’ life, coming from cities like Jamshedpur and Bangalore.

And then came 7th July. I was out hunting for a paying guest accommodation that evening. As I was sitting in Bus No. 131, with the broker, suddenly there was a cacophony of ringtones in the bus. Anxious looks dawned on everyone’s faces as they spoke into their phones. And so rang my phone. It was mom’s call. She sounded rather tensed, not that it wasn’t her normal pitch, but there was something different in her voice this time.

“Are you in the local train?” she asked. “No”, I replied. “Get back to the hotel. There has been a serial blast on the trains”, she cried out. So that was why the phones were ringing.

Looking out of the bus window, I could see that the already fast-paced city had broken into a run.

I switched on the television when I got back to my room. It was then that the magnitude of the tragedy dawned upon me. The 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai. 209 people lost their lives and over 700 were injured in the attacks.

I know that there is no way in which I can begin to understand the suffering of those who lost their loved one’s in this tragedy and therefore I offer my words as a sincere feeling of sharing the sorrow.

I write this, however, for another reason.

This is a tribute to the human spirit that this city is famous for. The spirit that was on show a year before during the monsoon floods on 26th July, 2005. News clipping showed people opening their doors to strangers offering them shelter, others offering biscuits and water to those stranded on the roads. That night the entire city had become one big Family.

The morning after the blast, it wasn’t like Mumbaikars sat in their homes, afraid to go out to their jobs, to their schools, afraid to resume normal life. The city put on a great show of unity and solidarity when the people of this city got out of their homes the next day to resume their daily lives with an increased show of vigour and self-belief. They travelled on the very local trains that been ripped apart in the blasts not less that twenty four hours earlier.

This was a message. A message to the world. A message that we shall not be shaken, we shall not be driven scared into our homes, we shall not cower down to such acts of intimidation and we shall not let anything affects our lives.

It’s been more than two years now that I have lived in Mumbai. Honestly, there is not much that I like with the city. Its dirty, its fast and the climate is horrible. But this city has that spirit, that charm, that attracts millions and I am one of them.

I offer this as a salute to the spirit of Mumbaikars.
As a salute to Mumbai.....aamchi Mumbai!!!!
P.S.: I apologise for posting this after July 11th.

Where is the Love???

I was thinking of penning down this thought for a very long time, but as usual, couldn’t get my lazy self to get the job done.

But something happened yesterday, something that I saw, that got me to finally write this thread.

As it was, I was coming back from the hospital, on the opposite side of a road close to my house; a car ran over a dog while it was trying to cross the road. The poor thing was writhing in pain but not a single vehicle seemed to slow down. Finally, a young girl got down from her car and had the heart of picking the dog and moving it to the side of the road.

As I sat in my car- waiting for the traffic light to turn green- watching all this unfold, I wondered. I wondered how all those motorists did not for once think about another living being when they refused to slow down their vehicles, let alone help the poor creature.

And then it occurred. Maybe we humans have just lost the “love”. When I say “love”, I do not mean the kind that we feel for our parents and near ones, nor the feeling that we profess to our boyfriends and girlfriends. By “love”, I mean a genuine feeling of doing something good and thoughtful for another person, for another living being, whether or not we hold a relation to that being.

I mean, has today’s world really become that materialistic and self-centered, that we cannot take one moment in our daily lives, to at least THINK about doing something good, to go out our way to make someone or something happy. I am a part of this world too, and as the majority, I too think in the same materialistic manner. I know there are so many things to do. The constant desire to work for the future, so as to make it more comfortable and easier takes away most of our lives. Be it a student’s desire to make a career or a working man’s to get a better job. And I totally know where that thought comes from because I am also a part of that rat race called Life. But one doesn’t need to be earning a million bucks to make a small difference.

I ask myself.....how many times have I sacrificed my happiness for someone else’s, how many times have I done something good without being duty-bound to do it, how many times have I traveled that extra mile to bring a smile on someone’s face? I would not answer these questions saying never, but I know I haven’t done enough because I have been too busy doing MY own thing.

And even so, do I really want to spend my life in such a manner, that when it all comes to an end, I am left to ask myself “What have I to show for my life?”

Answer: “Money, cars, a big house, status.”

I would rather have my conscience answer me, “You brought a smile to someone’s face”, “and you did a good deed.”

Sometimes when I introspect, I wonder how “hollow” I have become. I can be concerned enough to call a number of people and inquire about the ins and outs of what’s happening in college, and spend hours together gossiping, but seldom do I take such an initiative, out of my own volition, to call upon my grandparents with the same zeal. I know that “call” would definitely bring a smile on their faces. That’s not to say that I don’t love them. It’s just that in today’s world the priorities have become lopsided.

This post may feel very idealistic. But this same idealist thought gave this world a Mother Teresa who lives in the hearts of millions as a Saint who devoted her life to selflessly caring for others. And you know what; it wasn’t like Life wasn’t a rat race during her lifetime.

I know I wasn’t one of those who got down from the car to help that dog. But at least this thought is a start in that direction.

Please don’t get me wrong. My premise is not that I am asking others, or even myself for that matter, to abandon the pursuit for worldly pleasures. All I am saying is that in the course of that pursuit, we should also try to achieve a certain degree of moral ascendency.

Let’s not let the society reach such a stage where it gets difficult for us to associate the word “Human” with the expression “Human Nature”. Go out there and make that difference even if it is small.

P.S.: This post is a reflection of my personal thoughts. It is not indicative of the generality of this trend in the society at large.