Remove your glasses first

As mentioned in my last blog, today I went to Jantar Mantar.I had been to Jantar Mantar numerous times before but this time it was different.For the first time in my life I was going to that place to register my presence in protest to a national cause.It was only after reaching there and standing for first 30 minutes that I felt that I went there for a personal cause rather than a national or international one. I found my self there standing and listening to the way every one around was expressing himself or herself. There were mainly two forums , one of which was totally political and the other one was totally emotional. Rationality was still missing. Everyone was whole heartedly blaming the police,the government, the system, the laws and even the public which did not extend support in time to the victims. I started to feel that everyone was looking at the case through their own perspective and through their own glasses of politics, emotionality, hatred, excitement, consciousness, insecurity but hardly anyone was rational. It was a big hue and cry over the spilt milk but no-one was having a clarity on vision on what is to be done next. There were suggestions about being pro active in such situations arising in future or creating a social police which may act at an interface of public versus the existing Police. A couple of rational thought also appeared when someone shared his inclusive view on everyone around in society in all possible roles and status. He said that police or a leader is no more different from us. If we are indifferent to such incidents then we can not expect them to behave differently. After spending around two hours I started my journey back to my home. While in the Metro a lot of things were coming to my mind. Suddenly I realized that almost every one I heard was speaking by looking at the incident through his own glasses. No one was finding himself actually responsible to what all has happened.Everyone was trying to prove in his own might that he is really making a great contribution by facing the police , water cannon or even spending their time in such a chilly weather at jantar mantar. Reality remains that we all are a part of the police, the public and the government. Till we start looking at this incident by removing our glasses then we may find that it is us only who is responsible for this all. The police is secondary , even the people who have ignored the victim on the road should be treated as a primary accuse. Even ourselves who have been so silently watching eve teasing or any indecency with the females around us for whole of our life are equally responsible. This incident is not the first of a kind.It is a bursting at the tipping point.We should be thankful to the youth of the country to have taken such an initiative without any face of leadership.I feel that today is not the time to change the world outside rather it is a moment to go inside and change the way we behave against all the atrocities happening against woman and even children. Let us open forums at all places and even within our houses. Let everyone talk about it and become responsible to react appropriately at all the places where such incidents are taking place. Let us all talk about it and look for all possible solutions which are far beyond all laws and policies. Even laws have also limitation to support those who are aware of their own rights. Let us make our country and the world a place where instead of preaching dos and don'ts to the females, we give them a free environment where they could feel safe and secure. Let us all remove our glasses of self praise and looking good and not looking bad image. Let us all feel and realize the contribution which we have offered in happening of this historic incident.

Inculcating governance through traffic rules

Governance will be the order of the day in 21st century. The backbone of governance is the ethics and value system in a society and the irony is that you can’t teach ethics and values to anyone. Values and ethics evolve over a period of time through the dynamism of culture. The dynamism of culture particularly in India has been following a downward mobility towards convenience rather than a robust value system requiring high levels of self discipline. Some one has rightly defined ethics as a choice of decision one make while facing a red traffic signal light on a deserted road in winters at midnight. It is not important that whether he should jump a red light or not ; the important aspect is whether he is bothered about the red light or not.

People would soon start believing that the traffic sense in any society would be a unitary measure of state of entropy in their social system. On a busy road in a metro or on a highway or in the hustling lanes of small towns, road manners are the true measures of rowdiness around. It is felt that the mannerism divide on the road is bigger than the financial divide in our society. The majority of the society is hoarding more and more money by all means to gain power and not to earn prestige. The road manners displayed by a citizen are symbolic to the character of the personality and true indicator of the level of ethics underlying all of her thoughts , acts and deeds.

The society in true sense is exuberating power by breaking traffic rules rather than attempting to create a benchmark for others by following the same rules. Even the system is found in an embarrassing situation to handle such situation of chaos. Due to bureaucratic setup we have been classically conditioned to succumb to circumstances being created by the glitter of wealth. Neither a petty traffic inspector nor the highest judicial personnel could ever do justice to his duties while handling any direct or indirect violation of traffic law by these miscreants. It will be too foolish to consider these petty incidences of traffic indiscipline in our society to be considered as a cause of concern in 21st century. Such incidences are more or less routine and are now hardly get noticed also due to conditioning of all our senses.

However the message which these incidences carries to the up coming generation in India is a key destroyer of the high value system in any society. Everyone is living in a highly over communicated society. We come across thousands of messages everyday and later our cognitive processes help us to organize and interpret them in a unique manner. Such incidences of traffic irregularities and partial behavior of our system to handle such cases would simply paint a highly corrupt picture of our public security system. If we do not develop a uniform law at least for the traffic on road in true sense then we may end up painting the image of an ideal citizen to be the one with lots of money and a free will to break red lights , have dark films on the windows, over speeding, taking lives and endangering other lives regularly and above all a person most respected in the public functions of his area.