The world today is abuzz with the word “Change “. The recent explosions in Mumbai have incited lot of reactions from our otherwise quiet population. Indians in general and Mumbaikars in particular are talking about a change. Change in the way the government operates; change in the way money is spent on the modernization of our security. Analyzing it intricately the pattern that we see in all these demand for change is that - Change is being expected from some other individual, some organization.
Little do we realize that it is we who form one of those individuals and it is some of us who form part of these organizations?
Lets us delve into the question as to where the problem lies and what is that we need to change from .Let me ask you a question first. Whom do you hold responsible for the Mumbai carnage? The so called systematic failure that we all have been talking about? Is it the government? Is it the beauracracy? Or is it the system that has become rotten due to years of corruption, neglect and misadministration? Did I miss something? Well what about our “laid back attitude”, Our concept of jugaad, our attitude to fix the things under the table,
Let me quote an example to further harp on it. I work for a mnc and in one of the projects we had a poject manager from the US. In one of my informal talks with him he mentioned how he rejected the demand of his wife to bring a pirated “Indiana Jones” cod from india, terming it as being part of robbery .I wonder how many of us Indians think that way .We have become accustomed to certain kind of habits to such extent that they appear natural to us.
So lets us again analyze know what is the problem, who all are responsible and what is the solution
The problem – The 100 rs you pay to the policeman when you are caught violating the traffic signal ; The contact in the ministry that you so very boost of and use it to your advantage; The meter board that you tamper with to save some money .Summarizing your adherence to the concept called ‘Jugaad ‘, which is your way to ease your problem is the most fundamental problem .It has crept into our attitude and our system so deeply that adhering to it has become a natural habit . What happens in the eventuality is that any process that make our system strong is tampered with and slowly and steadily the system becomes a failure
Who is responsible- Well, lets look at the small list of problem and ask ourselves if we ever contributed to the problem . Whoever has the answer in yes , has a partial responsibility for the Mumbai carnage . Lets accept the reality – It is we who are part of the system – Its our attitude and values that drive the system and make it fundamentally strong or weak. Therefore its time that we stop the blame game and accept greater responsibility for our actions. It is time for a collective action and getting rid of the problem from the root level.
The solution: Lets turn to Gandhigiri for help.Well here is what it says – “Be that change that you want to see in the world”. Yes we all need to change and it wont be easy .We will need to get rid of this habit of ‘jugaad’. It requires the same effort as a mature individual would require to get rid of his childhood habit , the same effort as would be required by a drug addict to get rid of his habit.
But one thing is for sure - We all hold a responsibility to the problem and therefore we all , and not somebody else , need to change . Let us all rise from the state of denial and contribute our bit to our India , our Mumbais
