has come… and apart from putting on tricolor at every conceivable place, and putting on blaring music featuring some quasi patriotic songs, no one is in a mood to to something different. The scene is same as last year, or years before that.
What we need is not rhetoric about change and improvement or comparisons which are as empty as the water reservoirs in the summer. We need discussions that are action oriented and implementation focused.
India is lagging. We are losing out on the gifts which we have received one way or the other. Instead of having a structured agenda that is party independent, the autocratic rule still persists as different levels. The oldest democratic party in the country still is ruled by a dictatorial style, the head treated as empress. Even in school, the principal is god+king, and the participants ( students) have absolutely no say in any of the policy decisions.The ministers are treated not as public servants by any stretch of imagination, but as modern day rulers.
This has to change.
One way to start is to focus on what concerns me and millions more. In mumbai, people are alien to the concept of comfortable traveling. Trains are impossibly crowded, and instead of finding solutions to create other channels of public traveling, we laud the tolerance of people. Some weird thoughts are they not ?
The roads are filled with potholes, and no one gives a shit. People who can make a difference are busy feeding stray dogs.
By the time I reach office, I have already traveled in one of the worst crowded public transport system for more than an hour, and what ever energy I had in the morning is almost done with just stay alive at the end of the journey. I can easily predict my effectiveness and amount of value add done in the office. Specially when I know I need equal amount of energy to return home.
By my calculations, I lose four hours every day in traveling. Add eight hours of sleep and eight hours of work, and I am left with two free hours for myself. too less to be creative or to work out after getting tired so much just by traveling. People have gone through similar grind for decades. By the time they are retired, they are hardly left humans i guess.
The quickest way to increase productivity is to provide comfort while traveling. A/C trains would go a long way to conserve energy, specially in the hot and humid climate of mumbai. The gains would be then immediately visible. People are paying five to ten times the normal ticket for the first class, and the situation remains exactly the same.
My point is the mentality has never been to expect luxury. If it is working, its a miracle, because we have never been exposed to anything better. I guess this needs a fundamental shift in the thinking.
No longer is the world okay with anything less than best, and neither should be we.
Expect the best, demand the best, starting from yourself, and spreading to everyone who is a service provider.
I guess the rewards would be late, but enough to take our beloved country to new levels.
Happy Independence day.
Take care…
