Chalta Hai is the perennial Indian excuse for mediocrity. Its an excuse everyone uses for not doing a job well. Combine this with a callous bureacracy and an indifferent public, and you have a recipe for the sorry excuse for a civilized nation that India has become. Police vehicles breaking traffic rules, a govt official asking for bribe without any compuction, the daily exposes on news channels of callous, indeed criminal indifference and negligence , point to the deep roots these cancerous habits have set in our society.
The worst of all this is the ordinary citizen looks at this helplessly , but just decides to shrug his shoulders with a sorry 'Chalta Hai' . Excuse me , but such behaviour is not just inexcusable its intolerable. The other day there was a news report about several people getting AIDS at a premier medical institute in New Delhi, because the staff there reused syringes , so they could sell the unused ones in the outside market. Instances such as these should not be treated as a simple case of theft. If you callously play with someone's life , you should pay for it with your own.
I read a short story sometime back of how a man diagonised with terminal illness decides to spend his remaining few days , ridding his city of bad manners. His idea is simple. He kills people displaying bad manners , with a note on why they are being killed. Three killings later , a wave of politeness is sweeping the city. Perhaps , aa we need is a true 'Indian' ala Kamal Hasan. Who knows, if I am diagonised with an incurable disease , I just might take up the role. Till then I will try and be content with ranting on this blog.
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4 comments:
Exactly my thoughts Sachin..
The Indian attitude of ' chalta hai' is responsible for the downfall of this nation..We are not bothered about anyone or anything nor try to obey rules ourselves.
Dont know when will we get saved from this quagmire of corruption and inefficieny..
India might be well qualified to become a super power in corruption and reckless attitude..
I think we seek easy answers.
A young nation like India with all its cultural n economical diversity will need time to find her bearings and all of us are in some way responsible for inaction towards that end.
But tending towards cynicism is/has become easier now to deal with the frustration.
My thoughts
Rahul
Unfortunate but true... i was passing by some streets in chennai the other day and no wonder people don't have homes to stay more than half the city is covered with garbage!
Wonder if we would even leave the earth for the future generations or will they curse us for all the stupid things that we have done!
Ahh forgot... well written :P
Sometimes, the ability to take the attitude of chalta hai is necessary and helps you survive. I am thinking of my protected childhood in Kerala when my parents used to tell me, "don't hang on the footboard of the bus, it's too dangerous. Just give up and come back home if the bus is too crowded." I didn't go back home. I couldn't. My friends from college would think I was a sissy. So I put one foot on the footboard and held the bar tight. It wasn't ideal. But I survived. These days, I use that skill on the London tube trains. Many of my fellow Londoners refuse to say "Chalta Hai" and stand on the platform till a non-crowded train comes along. The attitude probably comes from a knowledge deep inside that things will not change overnight.
I agree with Sachin, that we cannot be complacent with the Chalta Hai. We should react. But to live the moment, we sometimes have to just move on for the moment, and take action at the earliest opportunity.
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