Your Friendly Philosopher & Guide

He went to the US a couple of months back, and visited India for a couple of days recently. He called me from India, and said he wanted to meet me. This time I cancelled all my other commitments for I knew I would surely come. The appointment was at 11 am, and he called me at 11.10 am saying he was on his way. A marked improvement I should say. I am sure if he spends few more months in the US he will reach my home on time the next time. So what brought the change?

In India we have been tuned to “sab kuch chalta hai” attitude. We don’t bother about other person’s time. And we have forgotten courtesy long back. This plight of a country, which was at his peak of civilization when the Americans were living in the caves, is shameful by all sense. We aren’t Indians anymore, and we have lost all our Indianess but we still want to bask in its glorious past. We have lost in the race of development, and we have stopped getting civilized too.

As on date we need to visit the US to understand the basics disciplines of life. We need to visit the US to learn that – we should not spit in public places. We need to learn from the West that we should throw litter only in the dustbin, and we need to watch Hollywood movies to understand what lane disciplines actually are.

I met my ex-neighbour - an activist - in Chennai recently, and I happened to meet him at Chennai railway station. And the railway tracks of the IT hubs we Indians boast about were flooded with human shit. The place stunk like hell, and the guy said – if this place stopped stinking, we would fail to recognize the place! They have more or less become synonyms today. “There is so much to learn from the West,” he said. “And one of the first is – cleanliness!”

We usually laugh at the Westerners saying they don’t wash their butts with water - they use toilet papers to wipe it off instead. I think we have been trained only to wash our butts properly – rest everything we have started to take it for granted.