“Oil Mafia Burns Alive Additional District Collector in Malegaon” – On the eve of 62nd Republic Day of our country, a righteous Government Officer Yashwant Sonwane, while on regular patrol in Malegaon (Maharashtra), spotted some crooks illicitly carrying out adulteration of Petroleum Tankers. As he tried to stop them while making a video film of their act on his mobile phone, the goons, six in number, knocked him down and burnt him alive; so screamed the Front page Headlines of our Newspapers, when we would have leisurely woken up to a relaxing holiday on January 26, 2011.
As I walked back to my house after the morning jog, I could see around at major junctions on the road, social areas of housing colonies and elsewhere, people, young and old preparing for the flag hoisting. Brilliantly colored strings of tricolor hangings, balloons, wreaths, and other decorative items all in shades of our national flag beings propped up. At some places workers were hurriedly making last minute beautification, painting the podium steps alternating with saffron, white and green paints. All along this simultaneously as the loudspeakers blared inspiring patriotic songs, as a ritual for the two glorious days which mark the Indian calendar. A sense of déjà-vu filled my conscience as well, upon hearing the voice of legendary Mohammad Rafi in the song “Jahan Daal Daal, par Sone ki Chidiya Karti hai Basera, Wo Bharat Desh hai mera, wo Bharat Desh hai mera”.
Does our country still radiate the attributes showered upon it as the lines of the song say? Yes we have progressed beyond comprehension of our own expectations on economic front; the western world sees us as the land of opportunities and prosperity, rising above the Naked Fakir image of Gandhi as Lord Irwin described him in 1931. FDI’s are flowing in (although it has slowed down since 2006-07), we are producing billionaires and leading czar’s of the industrial world, making a mark on global stage, we produced our best performance in sports arena in Commonwealth Games and the subsequent Asian Games and many other fronts of this endless list of achievements; but have attained the similar progression on socially and ethical platform as well? A question which surfaces every time when we read such news articles along with other rosy painted depiction and our overtly self-proclaiming depiction of our progression. Just to emphasize on this question and the resulting comprehensible answer, is the scenario of those places in which they were making meticulous preparations in the morning for flag hoisting. They proudly unfurled the flag, sang the National Anthem, shouted hoarsely “Vande Matram”, “Jai Hind” and other similar passionate war cries for the amusement of their own self and young audience and distributed sweets and then quietly dispersed along their own paths. However as the evening sky painted a reddish hue and sun was on its descent, you could see torn and mutilated flags lying on the ground, being carelessly trampled upon by passerby’s. Used paper plates, plastic glasses and other informative pamphlets strewn around, making the place resemble a garbage dump. While the proud flag of the morning now meekly hanging from its mast ashamed of its surroundings; so much for the celebration in the name of the nation and patriotism.
Umpteen times has the comparison been made for making Bombay into Shanghai or a Bangalore into a Silicon Valley, all very true on development aspects, but falling flat on one basic thing - Our Social Behavior. So what if a high profile film personality threatening a police constable, when he tried to stop her from letting her pet poop on the seaside pavement; we are considering only if, we are uncomfortable, ready to shower abuses on the administrators the next day if we step on some filth lying on the road. This story I read as part of my school curriculum still hinders; A renowned Swami of yesteryears, visited Japan for some conference. While on his way back to the airport in the evening, as he was waiting for a taxi, he looked around to find some shop or stalls for fruits to break his fast. Unable to find any, he murmured to his assistant, for the lack of availability of fruits in Japan. A young Japanese student overheard his concern and after a few minutes was seen running towards the Swami, with a basket full of fruits of all possible varieties. He offered the basket to the Swami and declined to take any money in return; instead he spoke in a very polite and appealing manner, “Please take these fruits as a token of gratitude from all the Japanese people, but promise not to tell anyone back in your country that you don’t get good fruits in Japan”. The Swami stood flabbergasted with tears rolling down his eyes in admiration for the boy, his countrymen and the whole of Japan for producing such a culture and consideration. And here we are beating our chests proudly for our ubiquitous culture, our heritage, our past and our ancestry, while we continue to abuse and rape our country’s present image before others. How seriously do we consider the advertisement “Atithi Devo Bhava”, wherein a Amir Khan tries to stop people from sullying the monuments and harrowing foreign tourists, as they return with an image of disgust and ineptness of our country and its countrymen back to their people?
In the last six months having got the opportunity to travel the seams of Asian continent from Saudi Arabia and UAE in the west to Malaysia and Singapore in the east, my perception about cultures and heritage has changed a lot. Let me start from my own country and its gateways to the foreign world; the airports, and its staff. The Hyderabad International airport was awarded the 5th rank among the best airports of the world, but I wonder what rank it will get on mannerism of the staff and the comfort and ease of paper work and assistance to the passengers. We as Indians are under so much pressure and anguish all the while the immigration officers, turn the pages of your Passport and scrutinize your profile in person and on paper, like a CBI officer questioning a convict. I quiver to think what hassles the poor perceived gods in our motto “Athithi Devo Bhava”, aka, the foreign tourists have to go just to get the IN stamp marked on their passports. Well I got the opportunity very soon as we landed at the Jeddah airport, perceived as one of the top 10 busiest airports in the world and by far the largest airport in terms of total area. There were touts selling us cheap mobile SIM’s and luring us with fast cabs for Madina and Makkah right at the arrival and inside the custom area. Kudos for the security and safety of the worlds’ busiest airport! The best part was yet to come, as we lined up for the immigration and stamping queue, we found out harried passengers trying their best to converse with the immigration officers, who looked young brash kids asked to sit at this place of imminence for international travelers without knowing a word of English or rather any other language apart from Arabic. They were talking or rather trying to admonish the people particularly from Indian sub-continent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc) with utmost disdain, as if we were illegal immigrants caught trying to cross the Saudi border. While at the same time pilgrims from USA, Europe, Iran and Turkey were bestowed a royal welcome, with all their processes, form filings etc being taken care by the seemingly urchins at the immigration check.
Welcome to the holiest land in the world for Muslims. Wondering at my first instance of such treatment and discrimination for being an Indian, I turned towards my parents to seek answers as they had visited Saudi Arabia earlier for Hajj pilgrimage. While I was aghast and perturbed at this reception, my father all the while was least bothered and to him it seemed a routine procedure. Upon enquiring, I was educated by him, “Don’t be surprised, it is our own undoing, particularly the Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshi’s”, he said. “You should have seen people from these countries, during the time of Hajj pilgrimage, when the Saudi government has to make arrangements for lakhs of pilgrims coming from all parts of the world. They work overtime to make the best possible arrangements for us in terms of comfort, food, accommodation and transport, while maintaining complete hygiene and cleanliness. But we embarrass not only ourselves but also our country in front of everyone, through our acts and conduct. During Hajj, people from each country are given ribbons or wrist bands marked by the color of flags of their respective countries for ease of identification, in the event of some mishap or chaos, hence we Indians or rather anyone’s nationality can be easily identified just by looking at his ID card ribbon or wrist bands. Everyone watches in disgust when Indian pilgrims throw garbage around, eat and drink wherever they please, rather than designated places marked for the purpose and leave leftover food, containers and empty bottles behind, leave the taps running in washrooms as well as the faucets of Ab-e-ZamZam for drinking purpose. They would sleep and loiter around the prayer areas, talk loudly without caring about other pilgrims, cross the roads without any consideration for traffic signals, haggle with shopkeeper and bus drivers and create all sorts of nuisances. All the while the humble and polite workers appointed by the government authorities would be around cleaning their filth, closing the taps, and requesting them to maintain decorum, be quiet or follow the rules laid for their own comfort and safety. At one point when rich Arabs out of their own self conscience and seeking blessings and Dua of the pilgrims would bring packed food for them, it would be the Indians who would run around them asking and begging for more food packets, and packed boxes just for the sake of one-upmanship, knowing well enough that they would get more the next day and the food would be wasted. The polite Arabs bear all this with a smile during Hajj, as they do not want to disrepute the sanctity of the annual event by showing anger, hatred and scorn for their Muslim brethren from around the world.
But they display their disdain during other times, when Indians visit their shores for Umrah (the non-compulsory pilgrimage at other times apart from Hajj), for visiting their relatives or for employment purpose. They are treated with disregard and given least priority during the immigration process, and show little inclination to ease their travel hassles and other paperwork. Rather you clearly see the discrimination when the Air India plane is allocated the farthest runway at the Jeddah airport and passengers have to wait significantly for the buses to take them to the terminal. And surely then, when we do return back to our shores we do feel happy and proud to be an Indian, continuing our habitual garbage throwing, spitting, spiting, shouting and scorning our government and our countrymen for everything. We should be thankful to the Arabs for showing us the mirror for what we do to our own country.
Well the situation was much improved in Dubai, where thousands of Indians have settled for decades and are very much part of the governance, administration, finance and economic build up as well as the culture and heritage of that world, gelling seamlessly with the locals. So we were treated as esteemed guests with an eye on our pockets to spend our cash on their goods, which they bring from India, repackage under international brand names, park them in pompous shopping malls and sell them back to us. And we buy those stuff and show off back in India, proudly displaying our Dubai clothes or watches or gadgets. Yes, but gold only in form of biscuit is the only thing worth buying there.
The world changed 180 degrees when we landed on the shores of Kuala Lumpur for our vacation. The immigration took hardly 4-5 minutes for all of us with a young smiling lady in her mid twenties greeting us with a “Good Evening! / As Salam Alaikum! Welcome to Malaysia”, after checking our names and documents. We collected our bags and were guided at each passage by either a smiling staff personal or bright prominent Sign boards for various amenities available at the airport without the gun totting security forces or wretched faced policemen observing us with suspicion back in airports in India. While in the city, there were help kiosks at every major tourist spots, malls, stations, terminals, hotels, market places, etc, for the comfort of the tourists. Although Malay is the official language of Malaysia, all the sign boards and guidelines are in English with Malay in smaller fonts in the bottom, knowing well enough what the language of the world is. Back in India when I was travelling with my family by car from Nagpur to Hyderabad for the first time, we were perplexed to find 90-95% of the sign posts and milestones marked in Telugu or Marathi in their respective states. Clearly ignoring the facts that users of the National Highway would be people from other parts of the country as well, who in all probability wouldn’t know a word of either of the language. Score 1 for national integrity; which is why even after 64 years of Indian independence we are still fighting on the basis of cast, creed, religion, language, ethnicity and plethora of other trivial reasons.
The situation was even better when in Singapore airport every passenger was being welcome and offered candies at the immigration check counters. As I picked one candy, the young lady smiled and offered me to take few more; I picked another, so she indicated that I pick a fistful. I politely said, “No Thanks, this would be sufficient”. After I walked out of the area, I wondered was the image of India being a country of hungry and poor gave her a chance to jibe at me alluring with the candies or was it that some of my brethren had created mayhem at the candy box before I walked in. Whatever, it was a pleasant experience.
Politeness, Discipline, Courtesy and Decency in demeanor are the crowns which everyone in these countries wears with a smile on their face. At the public places, transportations and tourist places forming a queue even when not asked for is natural. Courtesy for others is a given, while politeness even from a lady doing a night shift at the ticketing counter of a monorail station is conspicuous. It happened once out of our habit, as the train approached we ran as the automatic gates opened, to get a seat in the train. To our surprise others waiting around us instead of jostling for entry themselves, immediately gave way and allowed us to board the transit first. We were so embarrassed and ashamed that we followed the adage, “When in Rome do as the Romans do” to the hilt thereafter.
I am reminded a thousand times by not only jibing peers and friends but sometimes also my inner voice when I introspect the pathetic predicament my country finds itself; it reminds me the immortal words of John F Kennedy during the space wars with erstwhile Soviets, “Ask not what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country”. Agreed and acknowledge the power of those words, but then what do I do if the countrymen are hell-bent upon molesting my country of its resources, its reputation and its marketed deportment at a worlds stage. Would JFK had had the same words, save his countrymen had been so apathetic for their own country? So forget about Bombay (not Mumbai) becoming Shanghai in 2020 or 2050 or 2550. Let’s first learn to rise above petty issues all the while polishing our own selves in terms of basic things as demeanor, politeness, courtesy, simplicity and other such characteristic jewels to decorate our profile. No 10% or 20% GDP growth, a nuclear power break through, or a 100 Gold’s in Olympics (sic) would uplift us, if we continue spitting in public carriageways, relieving ourselves at the nearest available crevice (not even required for some of the shameless) or incoherently tossing away that chocolate wrapper from our car window. While our politicians are and would continue to create landmarks and new summits in terms of corruption booty or scandals, be happy go lucky erecting their own statues, renaming cities to Shri Sambhajinagar, Shri Sahujinagar till the time you go maniac or become lunatic with Parkinson’s, we would continue to elect them rather them hold against them for lack of development or any fruitful work done for us or the constituency.
Although a critic of my nation on many fronts, I am a devote admirer and ardent nationalistic from the bottom of my heart in at-least one field and that’s Cricket. Come Feb 19th and we will forget our indifferences and ill-mannerism. All will be well, when it concerns Cricket. Go India!! The World Cup beckons you.
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