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chatty
chattyDo you expect an admission from anyone when you tell him he is rude? Well, that is the raging controversy in Mumbai today, about being labelled the worst behaved people in the world. The survey was done by the Readers’ Digest where Mumbaikars, just as the people in several cities around the world, were set up to study their behavioural tendencies – like dropping books on the pavement to see if people would help you retrieve them, holding the door open for someone coming behind you, etc.
First, does anyone remember a hugely debated controversy on people spitting on the street which had subsumed Mumbai a few years ago. There were ads placed in trains and buses which said that you should humiliate the wretched ones who spit on the road. Noble cause there. But the class of people who chew pan or tobacco were amused by the campaign. For them, mostly non-English speaking, chewing pan or tobacco and spitting whenever they felt the urge was part of their culture. They had explained that for thousands of years, irrespective of their religion, it had been their tradition to chew pan or tobacco, even as it was considered healthy by the indigenous medical practices. But the elite in the city who mostly don’t chew tobacco or pan, would hear none of it. ‘‘If that is your culture then change it, these are modern times, we are living in a globalised world where all our standards are determined by what is prevalent in the US and Europe’’, was their temerity-filled refrain.
Now with the Readers’ Digest survey the globalised world has come a full circle for the elite in Mumbai. Wherever you go the English-speaking people in Mumbai would damn the survey on the grounds that saying thank you and holding doors open is not in our culture!
The fact of the matter is: when it was the issue of spitting on roads the elite took the high ground as they did not chew pan or tobacco --it was the lower class, lower caste people who indulged in them. And at that time the people who spat on the road were told to change their culture.
But when it comes to rude behaviour no one can beat the elite in Mumbai. Enter a first-class compartment in Mumbai and you will know that only your most primitive animal instincts can save you. Cultured, civilized manners are a liability. The fact is, we Indians are hypocritical, immature, unsophisticated and unable to take criticism or mend our ways.
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celebratoryYesterday when I heard one of the Pakistani commentators say that Pakistani players will never be involved in killing their coach Bob Woolmer as they are all Muslims, all believers at that, I almost laughed out loud. Actually, I have no interest in cricket, but ever since this death turned out to be a murder involving betting mafia, I have been reading every word that appears in print. The point is it is not just Pakistani cricketers who are to blame, it is our culture based in Hinduism that is responsible for this behaviour and the systems that we have built. After all, the Muslims in Indian and Pakistan were Hindus generations ago.
If cricketers don't pay customs duty on an imported Ferrari cars and if they still remain our role-models, it only reveals how venal and corrupt they are and how we as a people support this attitude against morality.
Only yesterday I had a lively debate with two guys in the 7.16pm fast train from Mumbai CST who were like me, caught in rush. And like in TV soaps we were all speaking without facing each other because of the overly crowded train. The two were wanting to alight at Ghatkopar and were standing near the door. As quite usual, people standing around them gave them their all-considered gyan on who should get into the train, who should alight where, who should stand by the gangway and who should sit inside.
This is quite a regular feature in the trains in Mumbai and I always wondered why do we Indians have such an irresistable urge to tell others what to do and how to do it. People are just waiting to give their opinion and then impose that on everyone, as if that is so macho and fashionable. Why do we have such a skewed idea of what is right and wrong. I have seen people who travel short distances on fast trains getting very defensive when passengers who travel longer distance give them a dressing down.
When I and my colleague travelled in trains in London Tube not one passenger ever talked to us, nor did anyone bother where we boarded or alighted, however crowded the train was. And during peak hours the train can get really crowded just as in Mumbai. The only difference is that women there don't make a song and dance if you touch their shoulder in the rush. A polite 'sorry' work wonders in London. And the travel in London Tube can get as unsavouringly crowded as in Mumbai with a lot of women travelling along with men. The unwritten rule is that if anyone wants to travel in the rush they should be ready to get a little uncomfortable. No one ever speaks to you unless you are an acquaintance, which is such a relief. And the best part is that the body language of the people is so comforting, they don't make arrogance fashionable like in India.
Show of violence on the streets, even amongst rickshaw drivers, BEST drivers, private car owners is unfathomable, but it is there for all of us to see. We also appreciate and proactively support such behaviour. (Read my next blog on rude Mumbaikars which I wrote for a magazine but it never saw the light of day for it had unpalatable truth).
The other day I was walking with two office colleagues near Regal cinema in Mumbai. A young man hailed a taxi, but before he could open the locked door another young man got in from the rear door and the taxi sped away. The guy who was left behind looked sheepishly at the impertinent bahviour. But both my colleagues were of the opinion that he should have been more street-smart, and that he only got what he deserved! This is the middle class speaking.
As I argued with the two co-passengers in the train it is not competition which is making us behave like this. There is huge demand-supply deficit today which is making salaries go through the roof. Even the most unemployable people are finding jobs which fetch them good remuneration. Yet, the behaviour of these very people is getting more and more unruly. And we make a fashion statement of arrogant behaviour. Just look around with the people in the office, at banks, at cinema halls, anywhere. Breaking rules, jumping the queue, all have become part of smart behaviour. And most of you will not even agree to this because you also approve of it.
As I must have said in some other blog of mine, during my school days good and bad behaviour were made clearly distinctive. Today, that line has been progressively blurred by us Indians. We tolerate and want our kids to behave with arrogance and in self-conceited manner, all in the name of competition. Just go for a PTA meet in any school in India and you will realise what I mean.
As I told my co-passengers, I always wondered why India gave birth to a Mahatma Gandhi. Why the US or Europe did not have someone to preach non-violence in the modern age. Those countries came out of missionary-led violence and slavery to the bright daylight of peace and understanding. But we have a Mahatma to teach non-violence and truth because he understood that we as a race are probably the most cruel, violent and given to lying. Also, see the number of swamis leading the pack to teach the art of living to Indians, where you are taught how you should share wealth, behave with equanimity, self-lessness, etc. I once became a member of Chinmaya Mission which gave me an inkling into the preachings of such organisations. Today I realise almost all such organisation teach the same.
My biggest worry about all this is not just about our liveable standards going down inexorably with every passing day. What really makes me sad is that in the developed world people are all getting better behaved, becoming more empathetic, responsive, and their attitude towards other races becoming more inclusive. While in India we are getting only backwards in our behaviour. Shiv Sena beating up Bihari boys at Kalyan station has been justified by the media, Mumbaikars, you and me. Wonder why no white Shiv Sena beat me up at Heathrow airport when I landed there. After all, I am supposed to take away their jobs, insist on my identity in their country, go against their national ethos and worse, be a terrorist. Hats off to the British. London is the best place on earth.
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caffeinatedThis morning when I read the newspaper heading that Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer died yesterday from the stress of his job, I could not help feel guilty. Some time ago a close friend of mine who had visited Japan had a strange story to tell me. He said that the people of Japan are so professional that everyone takes his or her job seriously, rather very seriously.
Leave alone having a chalta hai attitude to their job, they won't brook any nonsense at work place. Especially, they will never let anyone accuse them of being inefficient or unprofessional. He had a stunning example: Once he was waiting for the train at a station in Japan on his way to his work place, where he had taken up a job of a carpenter.
He noticed that the people waiting at the platform were exceedingly getting restless as the train was behind schedule by about three minutes. That was the second day of the train being late. But the next morning newspaper gave a front page story of how the train driver committed suicide because he felt guilty that he was being accused of inefficiency and unprofessionalism.
No one had even accused him of being inefficient yet he could not gather himself to face such accusations. Such are the stories which are told by our NRIs and PIOs who stay abroad, especially in the developed world.
My uncle who stays in the US for the best part of his life once came to Mumbai during the rains. Needless to say the road from the airport to my house in Mulund was pot hole-ridden. When we got to talk about the road conditions as well the taxis which ply on them in Mumbai, my uncle said that even in the US roads are built and maintained by municipalities and local bodies. They are not maintained by any private company. ''Then how do you keep your roads pot-hole free?'' I asked in half-incredulity.
''In the US and in the developed world, people (wherever they work, be it state government or private company) tend to be very professional in their approach to work. They will not give any chance for anyone to complain about their performance. In the developed countries people tend to have a lot of self-respect.'' Which only means, for them self-respect is a matter of personal belief, and not a matter of dinner debate as in India.
Recently, there was this case of a foreign (Japanese, if I am not wrong) contractor committing suicide in Kerala after he was forced to enter into corrupt deals with the state government, which delayed the work by the multinational company for which he was working. He was even threatened by the local goons. In the end his death has only remained a part of statistics, has anyone taken notice of it like the brutal murder of IIM alumni Majunath over his expose' of petrol adulteration.
We make so much of noise over corruption but what about our professionalism or the lack of it. The best thing which I notice when I see young people in profession is that they have imbibed the professionalism which my generation did not. My generation is too Indian in its outlook that we don't understand niceties like professionalism. I sincerely hope the young generation will sustain that professionalism right through their life.
A long time ago, when I was interviewing a Godrej precision tools division head, he told me that India can never beat Germany in precision tools. When I kept looking at him agape not knowing if he was in his right mind to say such a thing, he continued: ''precision tools are all about quality. The Germans try to inculcate quality standards in its people as a company policy. The company management would insist that the workers insist on quality even in their daily lives, when they are scouting for everyday grocery items at a mall''. We in India simply don't make up to that standard even when we are working in our offices and we have highly paid jobs.
Once I read a long time ago about how a five-star hotel in Mumbai awarded its steward for saving the day for them. The steward had served some foreign tourists soup for lunch. When the tourists found a fly in it, they were furious. But the steward explained them that it was not a fly but some Indian herbs which looked very similar to a fly. The tourists were convinced (or at least they pretended to be) and paid the bill and left. When the hotel management came to know of it, instead of sacking their whole team of cooks and stewards, they awarded him for saving the reputation of the hotel! Amen.
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bright
