Many of my friends and relatives say that I am spoilt being in foreign land for so long. We sound strange the way we interpret the indian lifestyle and the behaviour of fellow indians per se. Further they say our gypsy-status during last few years have changed the way we percieve the indian way of living and we’ve started comparing this great country with the other part of the world in literal terms, and we need to take a holistic approach while doing so as it’d be unfair to rate such a huge democracy of multi-lingual, multi-religion and multi ethnic groups. I completely do agree that India (rather Bharatvarsh) has been a great civilization and has a glorified past and present that we're really proud of, and has been beyond anyone's capability to be evaluated or compared in its entirety across any geography. So the question is not whether our present is on a firm foundation or not but whether we're leveraging the advantage we've gained over the centuries on the social and educational and economical fronts. And the answer is clearly "NO". The reason is "Sabb chalta Hai" attitude.
What is this ‘sabb chalta hai' attitude all about? I guess it’s not necessarily a bad idea to have this attitude in general as it’s a complementary trait for adaptability which is virtue of a good human being and a professional. However, as far as I’ve witnessed it over the years, it has costed we Indians immensely in all spheres of development. Littering, honking, shouting (rather barking), impetient outrage, bribing (chaai-paani at the minimum), displaying money and/or muscle-power every now and then, vandellism, nepotism, black-marketing, etc. is so common and rampant (and believe me most of the times it could have been avoided) that I wonder whom are we waiting for to come and clean this mess for us.
We keep on hearing that a disciplined Indian on foreign soil immediately starts behaving wayward the moment he touches mother land. In no time We adopt the good sanitation habits, good social practices, other good prevalent practices across the globe in terms of lifestyle, social securitiy, other richer cults, caring for human life (and much more) but we don't waste even a split second to come back to our moment we touch at IGI airport, New Delhi. Is that the bloody dirty gene that's the culprit.. no if that would have been the case then why i was clean gene being an alien. Actually that our 'sabb chalta hai attitute.. This disease (rather a cancer of our society) that I’d like to call “Sabb chalta hai” attitude which's now more of our key trait and becomes an integral part of our middle class backbone and huge young work force. I wonder are we really the descendents of the same folks who gave us Indus valley civilization? Is it our ”sabb chalta hai” attitude that's creating this havoc?
Undoubtedly each Indian knows what’s it all about and thinks he’s the ideal volunteer to work for it and at the same time thinks he’s not the one due to which this problem persists (same like how we define ‘Quality’ in system engineering). Also, at the same time we refuse to acknowledge that this is the prime reason for the apathy. We all know (at least I believe so) what are the ‘rights’ and ‘wrongs’ of a civilized society.
I see a compelling reason why a poor and illiterate (rather unaware) mass shows this attitude – he zeroes it as the easiest and most effective (also cost effective) option and finds its necessary of his survival at times (or at least gains a bit of edge over others). But what has happened to the backbone of this society – the highly education middle class and above all our dynamic and smart youth force is displaying this attitude in every walk of life. Where are we heading? Sometimes I wonder is this a country or just a market. Do we have any belongingness towards it or not? Where is India..?
Where’re my emotions for my mother India? I wonder if there’s any force that binds us as a nation (keep aside that handful of elites) except cricket or kargil. We’re caught in the culture of heroes and zeroes that Dr. Kalaam points out in his book ‘Wings of fire’. We have become so selfish and short-sighted that we won’t mind sucking blood of mother India in order to feed to our children. Where is India? My house and my beloved ones are what I care for.. I won’t like to even smile at others if it doesn’t benefit me in some way. Heights of cynicism.. Mother India is paying price for its size, both in area and numbers, and for diversity. We often say ‘unity in diversity’.. where’s unity (today only on Telangana issue, I came to know kosala, harit Pradesh, vidharva, poorvanchala, bundelkhand, gorkhaland, bodoland are next in the queue). Mother India is now more like a museum of world’s biggest democracy showcasing ‘unity in diversity’. I endlessly thank the impetus behind constitution that still keeps this country going.
Believe me if we don’t put a check on our this ‘chalta hai’ attitude then even a century is less to realise the dream that our visionaries have been showing us. We all love to listen to these heroes and applaud them a lot but soon we forget that the first step towards that dream starts with our single clean step. Nobody is gonna do that for us – we need to change the image and fate of our motherland and I’ve been stunned by the response I get when I act on this front. I see people cleaning their houses like sparkles this Diwali but what’s this? They’re dumping their shits in the gulleys.. Do their shining houses look good in totality? ‘Maine gulley ka thhekka liya hai? (Who cares about gulley?) they say. If we don’t bother about our own neighborhood then who’ll take care of the country? These politicians? Whom we curse round the clock and for making this country what’s it today?
Fellow Citizens and dear young friends, these are alarming signals and we need to work for a common cause. You must be aware that we’ve the biggest youth force in the world and we can turn the table in no time if understand our responsibility. And that’s pretty simple (as Kiran Bedi says) – just do your job honestly and have a sense of belongingness towards our motherland.
- Bete Noire
