My two kids grew up here in this city of 7 million people, they started with nursery school here and they went on to finish their schooling right here. The values we as parents tried to instill in the kids were the usual ones of respect for elders, honesty, compassion, fairness, loyalty and simple things like getting into line to be served. The children have long since left home, they have been away for over 6 years now and I often wonder whether those values that we taught the children stand them in good stead or do they actually hinder their progress through life.
These questions come to mind mostly when I drive to work every morning, there is a particular right-handed turn that I have to do to enter into a main road on my way to work - most folks driving cars stay to the left of the road and await their turn to take the right turn. But invariably there are those morons, some in fancy cars, who will ignore the line of cars on the left of the road, drive up the right of the road without bothering about the fact that they will hinder or even block traffic coming along that side of the road from the opposite direction. When the block happens, its chaos because vehicles cant come into the road from the main road and they pile up on that part of the main road and many think they should try and go around the traffic and block us who are trying to turn right on to the main road - the result is a grid lock and for may be 10 minutes its complete anarchy. All the while the inconsiderate violater thinks the guy who came in from the main road (on the correct side of the road) is the ass, 'he can see me, he should have waited for me to pass'!! Talk about self-righteousness!! We Indians as a people must be the most self-righteous people on the planet!
Those violaters can actually get through that traffic chaos and still ask whats wrong with the whole world - look at the mess 'they create'!! And we as a people can conveniently forget about those law abiders who chose to stay in line and await their turn - never mind that the idiot violater thinks they all must be fools to stand in line and await their turn to make that turn into the main road! Even the traffic cop thinks the violater really did not violate - he was just in a hurry to get to work you see!
Its the same thing in a ticket queue - theres always the violater who thinks its ok to jump the queue - every one in the queue are fools again you see! I wonder if I taught my kids the right thing by telling them to stay in line and never jump a queue - they must really look like fools to folks who think nothing about jumping a queue! Is it that teachers or schools dont teach these kids to await their turn? Will it help to hammer value education into kids in school? The cynic in me says that when there are so many people chasing so few goods & services there will always be people who will want their goods and services delivered out of turn and will even be willing to pay to get those goods & services out of turn - herein lies the root of corruption that we as a nation so bemoan - that then is my Queueing theory of corruption!
Your approach has been correct. My children grew up facing 25 transfers of their father during their school years. As a family we faced the corrupt and bore the consequences stoically. I cannot judge if the path was correct only that it is the path I know.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the roadies show you face on the road I deal with these guys by hitting their fancy cars with my jeep. If they dare to come out I ensure they regret it. Maybe it is the advantage of using the machinery which anyway was made to ensure law and order.
Regards
Vinay