Like most of the Indians I woke up today with a sense of frustration. The morning news had a few words from our elected representatives and thankfully so. As I switched on my TV there was a breaking news that Shivraj Patil had offered to quit during one of the high-level meetings of the union ministers.
You can not do that Mr. Patil!!!!! We elected you and your dear Madam offered you our caretaker's post. After this horrendous act by the terrorists you can not just shun your responsibilities and offer resignation. The best rather the only thing you can do is re-order our house before you leave. You can not leave a mess and think that someone else will take this responsibility. You were not offered this responsibility to maintain your gelled look, even though from your eventful tenure it seems you did only that.
My mind was raging with such thoughts. May be I was also thinking of sending a postal mail to Mr. Patil that my call-bell rang. My chain of thought was broken but that sense of frustration never subsided. As I opened the door I saw a face which poured the proverbial oxygen on my already infuriated mind. He was our vehicle cleaner who like most of our politicians had been doing a horrible job, since last week. And I did exactly what an average person would have done - Vented all my ire on him till his eyes changed from a shocking wide to a pleading wide.
"Sir sorry sir!! Given it to a friend sir...was not well...not good sir...will do it myself now sir" he offered his usual excuses in Kanglish. Yes that is the language which some people try to communicate in Bangalore and if you are a software engineer you are bound to get a bountiful of that.
"See we pay you for a service...at least make yourself worthy of that money" isn't it a typical software engineer response. We always tend to think in terms of assets, worth, issues et al.
"Next week leaving for native sir...not coming back!!!" he threw another shock.
So he had only come for his money. Isn't he another Mr. Patil? No care, not answerable for the callous act of his. Aren't we all someway similar to our home minister (he still is, at least till the time I publish this post)?
Do we care for our work being done without any callousness? Everyday I see people not caring for rules, be it the imposed traffic rules or the non-imposed civic ones. Is it some kind of Indianness that binds us or better still is it that elusive national integration that those old fellas used to talk about?
But still Mr. Patil this is not in support of you. You can not just pass the buck by resigning.
I had another thoughtful round which has resulted in the following random thoughts:
1) We are a billion-strong nation, but why is there a shortage of staff? Be it in government offices or our government undertakings or army for that matter. I know to get into army one needs special skills but who says we can not mould ourselves
2) Why can not politicians be made answerable? Public memory is so short that by the time we go for another round of elections our memory loss helps us in forgiving the erring elected representatives.
3) Why can not we have an year of compulsory military training and another of compulsory service (as a friend suggested)? Besides instilling discipline, it will help us in understanding our role as responsible citizens.
PS: As I complete this blog, I hear Mr. Patil has resigned. So you turned out to be another mere mortal, after all!!! Taking the path of least resistance.
