Indianness

What prompts me to write about the title is an incident. Today I went to a SBI ATM. As outside every ATM, it had an instruction: “Please wait outside when someone is inside”. Giving some kind of reverence to it, I preferred waiting outside, making myself the first in a queue. Little did I know, or in fact I knew, Indians are shameless. It was just a reminder. 2 guys brushed me apart, and entered the ATM cabin even though there were three people still inside. So, I had no choice but to make me a part of the shameless crowd and flouting the rules and go in. You defy Indianness and they banish you. Great, Isn’t it?

And it happened again in the next 15 mins.I went to the petrol pump and maintained the queue and two more bikes barge in between without caring whoever the hells there in a queue. Rowdy Indianness again. And the story doesn’t end here. It reproduces itself everyday somewhere or the other.

Lets talk about a stereotype Indian. One who is corrupt, flouts rules, has an innate “chalta hai” attitude, pisses on the road side, spits anywhere and everywhere, throws a piece of polythene or waste wherever it suits him/her, procrastinates, is never punctual coz he knows that has no value, waits for none (be it be a public queue or overtaking a vehicle or whatever) and finally blames the other Indians for the misery of India. Impressive indeed. And they say India is the second fastest growing economy. That piece of info flabbergasts me. If with such menace, India can be so booming, then had Indians been a civilized and self-correcting lot, India would be making even USA and China dance to its tunes.

Just a few months ago, CWG Secretary Gen. Lalit Bhanot made a press statement “Indians have a different sense of hygiene”. That drew flak from all quarters. But if you actually think about it, isn’t it true? I have seen people dumping things beside the road, when the dustbin is maybe just 10-20 m away. Sheer Indian hygiene. Or maybe consider the movie “Slumdog Millionare”. Just think!! Some classics from India like “Mother India”, “Lagaan” etc couldn’t get through the Oscars though they had a far more flamboyant and didactic theme but slumdog did!!Reason?? Accept it or not, everyone liked the real India and the real “Indians” being featured in it. I doubt whether it was really an achievement for India or rather a sarcastic mocking glance of the world at the crappy slums what they think is “real India”!!

And hold it , that is not the end. You are forgetting the most mesmerizing Indianness we have. Corruption and gorging and rampaging through the nations assets. And everything is like a vicious circle. U start from somewhere and you get back to the same place. So much is the influence of corruption that even the better lot have no option but to adopt it. Just like u don’t adopt Indianness, and you are kicked back. No more options. Talking about recent Swiss bank revelations, I would say Indians may be poor but India is not a poor country. I am not sure how that is at all interpretable, but true. With personal bank deposits of around $1500 billion, which is very shamefully 13 times of that of the total foreign debts of the country and also more than the sum of the deposits of the top 2-5. With that amount, 45 crore poor people can be given Rs 1 lakh each. And still, India is economically booming, says the stats. India would have been the numero uno everywhere without the havoc of corruption. I remember a news that hit the newspapers few years. A politician used to give his pet dog a ride everyday in a sports sedan!!!India is indeed booming and shining :P.

There need to be a revolution soon. The Indians have got to find the right meaning of Indianess. Not just find it, but implement it too to emerge as the citius altius fortius and for the world to look at it in envy. And next time, you go to the ATM, do wait, when someone is inside ;). Signing off
A.M.