Society, You're A Crazy Breed!

For past few weeks,a mosquito has been buzzing in my room, creating a squeaky and irritating sound. It seems to me, as if 10 times smaller Reshamiya is making Oooooon Oooooon sound with 10 times higher intensity.Not that, I haven't tried finding the mosquito and shutting it up once and for all, somehow it always gives me a miss. I am baffled, irritated and equally helpless, all at the same time.

Recent turn of events in the country has totally shaken me up to the core. First the brutal rape and murder of young girls, women, then the apathy of a large section of society to such events, indifference of political class(I am sure, hadn't it been for the protests in Delhi and other parts, they would have been quite happy sipping tea and munching pakodas on a chilly morning and terming these as one-off events) and to top it all the freewheeling comments from our leaders and godmen. It's like forcing us to watch a KRK and Rakhi Sawant movie, with a special appearance from Diggi Raja!

My thoughts are completely scattered and jumbled up about whom to blame for this social predicament. But this song gives a wonderful insight -> 

 

Listen to it and try to understand the underlying meaning. It has got english translation in the description.

I used to be proud of our society. It has been a breeding ground for philosophers, scientists, warriors of unparalleled talent. A society which should have been proud of its strength of character, after withstanding numerous invasions, tyranny of British rule, plethora of riots in name of religion is now grinning meekly with a "chalta hai" attitude stamped all over the societal fabric. We are so unwilling to learn from our mistakes and grow up as a society, that even Mt Everest would quip in its fantasy world-"Macha, even I grow up by an inch every year. What the hell do you think you are!"

My recent musings didn't help much in getting a concrete solution for this mess, but I was able to convince myself about few definite facets of our society.

• Acceptance - We are so goddamned hardwired about not accepting our mistakes.I mean, this is the very first step towards changing ourselves for good. It's like the first ODI run of Sachin Tendulkar, which is never taken. This gets even worse. The corollary to the fact "I won't accept my mistake" is "I won't forgive your mistake either and you'll have to pay dearly for it". Our politicians are a classic example of this theory, and not to forget, they are from this very society and they do things which we as a society like them to do. In a fantasy world, habitat-ed by myriad 'excuses' a mother 'excuse' would say to her child -"So jaa beta, nahi to Indian neta aa kar tujhe le jaayega" . From "Vipaksha ki gehri saajish" to "Nakshatron ka dosh hai", they have tested all waters. A recent and welcome digression to this tendency was Jairam Ramesh' apology to the nation on manual scavenging. When will we all learn to do the same?

• Accountability - This is a virtue which most of us lack miserably. No one is perfect, mistakes are bound to happen and will happen as long as the civilization remains. Instead of 'accepting' it and taking corrective measures to make up for it, we are quick to shrug it off our shoulders and find a scapegoat. 

I was witness to a funny incident aptly demonstrative of this theory. A certain Mr X in our office pantry emptied the maggi packet in a bowl. In the hurry of satisfying his hunger pangs,he spilled some maggi and also left the empty packet on the table. Mr Y, who is a big shot at office, was closely observing this drama. Once Mr X seemed content with the maggi and was about to leave the pantry, Mr Y pointed towards the ruined table,
"You see, we live in a wonderland called India, where left-overs and garbage disappear magically. We don't have to dirty our hands at all"
Mr X was quick to reply -"It was there before I even entered pantry"
Mr Y said calmly -"No, my dear. I have been watching you right from the time you grabbed the maggi to the time you belched loudly.It's your leftover"
Mr X gave a funny look and said -"Fine, I did it. Pantry boys are there to clean it up. I have better things to do"

So, even though Mr X accepted his mistake, he didn't hold himself accountable for it. I have another story. Recently, I ran a half marathon, one of the theme for which was "Clean Bangalore, Green Bangalore" To my astonishment, the whole distance of race was painted white with paper glasses and plastic bottles used by the participants(mostly corporate employees). And here we are talking about an educated class of individuals in a comparative civilized Indian city. Just imagine the back seat, accountability takes in other parts of the country.

• Adherence - We are the worst kind of hypocrite. We say things, we believe in them and then we forget them.

इतनी पहुच है जबान की
जितनी दूरी मुँह से कान की 

The reach of our words is exactly the distance between mouth and ear. It even fails to reach the brain, forget about it turning into action. Our non-adherence policies first get reflected in personal discipline and then transcends to breach societal and constitutional discipline. Our laws may be one of the best on paper, but we completely render them useless. The worst part of non-adherence is, it's dangerously contagious. I will take a cue from my own personal experience. I follow traffic rules religiously, to the extent of following even lane driving seriously. So, when I stop at a signal, I try to wait in my own lane.But, when I see people jumping ahead of me by completely disrespecting lane discipline, I give myself an excuse and follow their suit. See, non-adherence is always an easier way out, not much effort and more promising results.

Things are difficult in our society, but times, they say are changing. And being the optimistic prick I am, I don't see a reason not to believe them. With a pint of faith, will and courage, we can change ourselves and hope for the society to follow the same.

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. And the mosquito buzz is slowly fading away...