...and to think that we are a predominantly peace loving, pure vegetarian nation...
At the housing society where I live the security guards were abruptly replaced by new ones after a recent incident of theft. The members of the managing committee (self important guardians of social fabric who replace security guards anytime there is a theft) in a moment of enlightened epiphany decided to kick out the old guards and hire a new agency. This is their way of fixing the problem. So we hire more of the same calibre guards, the first few months are spent training these guys on how to deal with situations (generator, lifts, garbage boys, car cleaners, hawkers, entry-exit gates), teach them to be alert at night(not snore like the one I saw last night) and then one day 6 months down the line there will be another theft! New guards will be hired and the cycle goes on. The residents of our society will sleep peacefully lulled into a false sense of security by the "action taken" by the guardians of our society.... oblivious of the fact that the new guards are also sleeping like the last ones!
So what is the solution? Should guards be allowed to become permanent fixtures? family? What about familiarity and proximity breeding contempt? Well I am a simple human being I believe in trust. People who work with me, work with me for a very long time and rarely if ever leave. I believe when you hire a person you hire their services but when you live with the worker and work alongwith them you earn their loyalties. Stray cases of servants and employees stabbing an employer in the back should not be taken as a yard stick to formulate your hiring and firing policies. You give them ownership and they will give you more than your moneys' worth in customer delight.
So where else do we see this malaise? All over the country if you ask me. Take the recent example of the Common-Wealth Games. Infrastructure is not ready!! So what do we as a nation do? What does the media (that oh so full of itself guardian of the national pride and eyeballs) do? We indulge in mudslinging... we identify our daily pigs and slaughter them in the slush clogged drains not realizing that all we achieve is more filth. The solution is not to make scapegoats. The solution is to come together along with the guilty, formulate a plan to fix the problem, extend unprecedented support for the success of this plan, inculcate a positive atmosphere for everyone on the same boat, ensure the checklist is adhered to, schedules are met and make things right! Shooting the contractor who made a bad bridge will not solve the grave shame that is looking us in the face. Strengthening them, giving them confidence to finish the job in record time is what will help us save face on the world arena. However who will bell the cat?
We are a religious nation we love our sacrifices, our penance, our fasts, confessions. We love to find excuses and escape routes. Spend eleven months indulging in the most unimaginable debauchery possible and a month fasting, spend a year looting and nine days fasting, commit a crime and go confess. All is pardoned. We interpret religion the way it suits us best! And we are an oh so religious country. Furiously, rabidly aggressively religious to the core of our existences. Religion did not mean us to use the scapegoat/escape route mechanism as a way to wash away our sins. It meant the route to help us reconcile with our foibbles. A month or 9 days of penance is meant to give you a break from the debauchery. For instance when you take a break from smoking during the fasting period you realize you never really needed it!! You are set free by religion! This should apply to the other facets of our lives as well. We should understand that power is not in prosecuting a sinner but in making him realize the futility of his sins. How much wealth is enough? What use is the wealth when you cannot even eat a proper square meal because of a paralyzed mouth? So why run after wealth and make it at the cost of your soul? Why not run after better quality.
Why not work on making that poor security guard perfect by taking care of his needs (poor chap makes 2500 bucks a month, does a 12 hour shift at my gate and 12 hours at the neighbors gate) and then you expect him to be alert! Why can we not give the guy 5000bucks and reduce his duty hours to 10 hours a day. Connect with the guard see why he failed in his duty and fix the problem. Don't just exchange one problem ridden entity for another and tell the public that the problem has been fixed. No good sir you fixed a symptom not the problem. But then we are not going to hang you for that coz we are like this only! We like a little bit of 'tamasha' every few months and this action of yours ensures there will be tamasha! And again we will fire the guards, after all we are a nation that loves finding scapegoats and sacrificing them, peacefully and unanimously!
