Our nation is a nation of opportunists. In a capitalistic economy that's a good thing. No wonder we have so many successful entrepreneurs, not only in our country, but all over the world. We manage to make do (i.e. do "jugaad", to borrow that famous desi term for "make do") where others would give up and go on a pilgrimage. Which makes us the pioneers of Jugaad Innovation that's been fueling our economic growth.
But this opportunism comes with a price - death of Morality.
Since we Indians associate a lot to the term Morality (including adhering to age old traditional beliefs and values), let us set the record straight by defining the term Morality. When I asked Google Baba, I got the following Aakashwani: "Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behavior") is the differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good or right and those that are bad or wrong." This is the morality I am referring to here - "to do the right and to avoid the wrong"
Here is one of the incidents that prompted me to write this blog. We have 3 lifts in the building where our office is located. Out of that, 1 lift is off-limits for us, the Common Man of India. (It is reserved for the exclusive use of employees of a Japanese firm on 6th and 8th floors. Rumour has it - and I heard it from a lift-man - that they are paying 3 times the money to the building management. Another great example of "Jugaad" at work here in India...) So we have the liberty to use only two remaining lifts. Sometimes, one of these 2 lifts breaks down. (Point to be noted that the 3rd lift - the one for exclusive use of the Japanese company - never ever breaks down. Only conclusion I can draw is that the Japanese must be very lucky indeed.) When this happens, we are left at the mercy of a single lift. One lift for 5 floors. During peak hours, you will find so many people waiting at the door of the single lift, attracted to it like bees to honey. On one such day, I was waiting there with so many others for the lift. As the lift arrived, we all rushed in helter-skelter, irrespective of who had arrived first. There was a pregnant lady standing right behind me. We were 3rd and 4th to arrive and wait for the lift. By all rights, she should have got the opportunity to board the lift. But people simply rushed past her and the lift was quickly jam packed. She just kept staring in - confused. People just kept staring out at her - dispassionately and shamelessly. I stepped out and offered her my place in the lift. But she declined. Being pregnant, she couldn't squeeze in to the little space I had left behind in there. No one else stepped out. Finally the lift doors closed on both of us. I took the stairs leaving her behind to wait for the lift to arrive again...
This situation repeats itself every now and then. It happened today too. This time, I was left staring as people who had arrived after me rushed into the lift before I could even bat an eyelid. Right there in front of the lift-man who had been standing outside and monitoring the queue. His monitoring was certainly useless. I was so angry, I nearly shouted at the lift-man. As I mounted the stairs two at a time, my blood still boiling, I realized that it was not the lift-man's mistake. It is not his job to monitor queue discipline. It was the problem with us, the Common Man. We will break the queue whenever we get an opportunity to.
Under unsupervised conditions, queue discipline is virtually unknown in India. We will try to break the queue whenever and wherever we can. We require someone with authority to supervise us. You will observe this behaviour almost everywhere.
And this is not just confined to queue-breaking. If you observe carefully this behaviour is prevalent in almost every aspect of our lives. We will grab an opportunity, irrespective of whom we are stepping over to grab it. Seat-nabbing in the trains, rash driving on the roads in traffic, queue-breaking in ticket booking offices, corruption in government offices and in courts, politics and malpractices in corporate offices - such behaviour can be observed everywhere.
For a country that boasts such a rich cultural and religious heritage, we exhibit a strange, almost sick disregard for Morality. The so called "Moral Policing" is so rampant. And yet doing the right thing is never on our list of priorities.
Is this a trait that has evolved into our populace over the years? Or is it a byproduct of over-population - where the intense competition and lack of resources is pushing us to silence the little voice of conscience that always warns us before doing something wrong?
Placing all the apples in the same basket would be unfair on my part. First and foremost, adhering to any sort of moral standard is completely a personal choice. And it is certainly not easy. There is no simple black and white. The thin line between right and wrong can be very difficult to discern. Usually, it is not everyone who break the rules. Its just one desperate person. But if no one takes any action to stop him, he not only gets away with breaking the rules, he benefits from it... And no one stops him. The present day Metropolitan would be best known for his apathy towards fellow humans (If there is an accident, everyone would crowd around and stand by, capturing all the gory details on mobile. But no one would come ahead to help.) So the wrong-doer gets away with his misdeeds. And when others see this, they quickly follow suit. I mean, its human nature right? Why should I be unfair to my own self-interests in order to be fair to others? Over time, such an attitude has become so prevalent, has so permeated the fabric of our daily life and culture, that we take it for granted. If someone becomes successful, our first assumption is that he must have broken the law to do it. An average Indian has more faith in the benefits of twisting the law, than in the fruits of hard work. If something comes easy, why struggle for it? And the few idealistic fools who question it, who still adhere to the age-old values of fairness and morality, are left behind wondering what their world has come to?
But this opportunism comes with a price - death of Morality.
Since we Indians associate a lot to the term Morality (including adhering to age old traditional beliefs and values), let us set the record straight by defining the term Morality. When I asked Google Baba, I got the following Aakashwani: "Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behavior") is the differentiation of intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good or right and those that are bad or wrong." This is the morality I am referring to here - "to do the right and to avoid the wrong"
Here is one of the incidents that prompted me to write this blog. We have 3 lifts in the building where our office is located. Out of that, 1 lift is off-limits for us, the Common Man of India. (It is reserved for the exclusive use of employees of a Japanese firm on 6th and 8th floors. Rumour has it - and I heard it from a lift-man - that they are paying 3 times the money to the building management. Another great example of "Jugaad" at work here in India...) So we have the liberty to use only two remaining lifts. Sometimes, one of these 2 lifts breaks down. (Point to be noted that the 3rd lift - the one for exclusive use of the Japanese company - never ever breaks down. Only conclusion I can draw is that the Japanese must be very lucky indeed.) When this happens, we are left at the mercy of a single lift. One lift for 5 floors. During peak hours, you will find so many people waiting at the door of the single lift, attracted to it like bees to honey. On one such day, I was waiting there with so many others for the lift. As the lift arrived, we all rushed in helter-skelter, irrespective of who had arrived first. There was a pregnant lady standing right behind me. We were 3rd and 4th to arrive and wait for the lift. By all rights, she should have got the opportunity to board the lift. But people simply rushed past her and the lift was quickly jam packed. She just kept staring in - confused. People just kept staring out at her - dispassionately and shamelessly. I stepped out and offered her my place in the lift. But she declined. Being pregnant, she couldn't squeeze in to the little space I had left behind in there. No one else stepped out. Finally the lift doors closed on both of us. I took the stairs leaving her behind to wait for the lift to arrive again...
This situation repeats itself every now and then. It happened today too. This time, I was left staring as people who had arrived after me rushed into the lift before I could even bat an eyelid. Right there in front of the lift-man who had been standing outside and monitoring the queue. His monitoring was certainly useless. I was so angry, I nearly shouted at the lift-man. As I mounted the stairs two at a time, my blood still boiling, I realized that it was not the lift-man's mistake. It is not his job to monitor queue discipline. It was the problem with us, the Common Man. We will break the queue whenever we get an opportunity to.
Under unsupervised conditions, queue discipline is virtually unknown in India. We will try to break the queue whenever and wherever we can. We require someone with authority to supervise us. You will observe this behaviour almost everywhere.
And this is not just confined to queue-breaking. If you observe carefully this behaviour is prevalent in almost every aspect of our lives. We will grab an opportunity, irrespective of whom we are stepping over to grab it. Seat-nabbing in the trains, rash driving on the roads in traffic, queue-breaking in ticket booking offices, corruption in government offices and in courts, politics and malpractices in corporate offices - such behaviour can be observed everywhere.
For a country that boasts such a rich cultural and religious heritage, we exhibit a strange, almost sick disregard for Morality. The so called "Moral Policing" is so rampant. And yet doing the right thing is never on our list of priorities.
Is this a trait that has evolved into our populace over the years? Or is it a byproduct of over-population - where the intense competition and lack of resources is pushing us to silence the little voice of conscience that always warns us before doing something wrong?
Placing all the apples in the same basket would be unfair on my part. First and foremost, adhering to any sort of moral standard is completely a personal choice. And it is certainly not easy. There is no simple black and white. The thin line between right and wrong can be very difficult to discern. Usually, it is not everyone who break the rules. Its just one desperate person. But if no one takes any action to stop him, he not only gets away with breaking the rules, he benefits from it... And no one stops him. The present day Metropolitan would be best known for his apathy towards fellow humans (If there is an accident, everyone would crowd around and stand by, capturing all the gory details on mobile. But no one would come ahead to help.) So the wrong-doer gets away with his misdeeds. And when others see this, they quickly follow suit. I mean, its human nature right? Why should I be unfair to my own self-interests in order to be fair to others? Over time, such an attitude has become so prevalent, has so permeated the fabric of our daily life and culture, that we take it for granted. If someone becomes successful, our first assumption is that he must have broken the law to do it. An average Indian has more faith in the benefits of twisting the law, than in the fruits of hard work. If something comes easy, why struggle for it? And the few idealistic fools who question it, who still adhere to the age-old values of fairness and morality, are left behind wondering what their world has come to?
