'Chalega' attitude

Air India used to conduct Essay competition every year, some 20 years ago, for the school students and the winner of the competition got a free holiday trip to Singapore! In one of the years, the topic was "What ails India?" or something like that. A student from Chettinad Vidyashram won the competition that year!

"What ails India?", the boy asks the question. "Is it population?", "Is it corruption?", or, "Is it red tapism?", the boy goes on asking, replying in negative everytime. Finally he zeroes in on the chalega attitude of the people as the real reason for the country's ailments. People put up with everything that happens around them and grin and bear it without protest. The unscrupulous politicians and business people get emboldened by this attitude seen around them, take advantage of it and go on exploiting the people and damaging the country for their personal gains. (These are the impressions I had formed in my mind as the content of the article after reading the write up about the article in the newspaper. The actual content may vary from this.).

Does the situation remain same now, or, has it changed? The answer seems to be yes and no. The boys and girls these days are very smart, confident and bold. They don't take things lying down. The education seems to give them more authority to question the wrong doings around them. Media and consumer forums are playing their roles very well. The people gained great exposure to the world around, especially with the advent of colour television, and with more people travelling abroad. especially the children of those in power. Probably, these children have egged their parents to carry out the policies and action plans that put India on par with the other nations. Definitely the demands of the people were listened to, and better infrastructure, environment etc were put in place. With the gates opened up for globalization, and with IT occupying centrestage, things started moving faster. We are now rubbing shoulders equally with all the frontline nations without qualms.

Then why "No" for an answer ...........?? We are faltering on the human rights issue. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer! You see, the people are bothered about only what affects them directly it seems. They seem to let go on the other things. Thus we see the Adivasis and native people of Orissa being robbed of their moorings. All the fight put up to get proper settlements for those displaced by Narmada Dam did not bring much success. The people of the Seven sister states of the North East are a dissatisfied and disillusioned lot, and quite a lot of them see India as allien country. Telengana state is demanded because the region had been neglected all along! The labour force of the unorganized sector is underpaid, and when demands are made for increase in wages, the labour force is quietly replaced by people migrating from the rural areas and from other states, or by machines.

Much water has flowed in, no doubts! But, where the water has not flowed in, it has been left high and dry!! That is why Maoists are making some inroads, and Raj Thackeray is listened to.

Even where much water has flowed in, certain things don't make sense. Why for example, there are bumps and pits in all the roads all over India, barring highways and Expressways, and some of the roads having gaping manholes? These cause fatalistic accidents. Motorists' disregard for the traffic signals also cause deaths by accidents, especially the disregard by the drivers of containers and trucks. The Xrays, scans and ECGs don't work in General Hospitals, nor are essential medicines available. Toilets stink and are unhygenic, and yet we want toilets in every village. The MRTS stations are very dirty. Their huge empty spaces scare you! The list is endless and the less said of the rainy days, the better!!

Our Cricket team winning the world cup in 1983 was a real moral booster that drove out this chalega attitude from people, followed by our winning the T/20 world championship two years ago!! All forms of music and dance from Bollywood and other regional cinemas bear the stamp of excellence. The construction industry has come a long way. We are seeing excellence all around us.