I was watching through the window as the traffic rushed past. Everyone was in such a hurry. They could barely restrain themselves enough to actually stop at the red light – instead they would be inching along way beyond the white marker and ending up at the middle of the junction so that they could zoom ahead as soon as the lights turned green. Parents would drag little children as they ran through the melee of cars with no care as to whether the panting children could get their little legs to move fast enough. Kids on bikes were lurching up the sidewalks in an effort to overtake the cars waiting at the lights. I saw accidents on a daily basis – most involving two-wheelers and all of them involving an excess of speed.
In the mornings, it would seem, the whole world is in a rush. I rush around too and the children barely have time to get their act together and go out the door on schedule. My hyperactive maids rush through so superficially that nothing gets done but they go through the motions and are out in less than two hours. I get back from work and complete their tasks. I tell them time and time again that rushing serves no purpose but no maid will listen. Its like the chaotic traffic all over again. Why would one rush heedlessly in order to avoid a few minutes or sometimes seconds of waiting and end up jeopardizing things a lot more valuable than time? Why should anyone think that getting things done quickly is better than getting them done thoroughly?
The answer I think, lies in the fact that we Indians, as a nation do not care for perfection or completion. There is a lot to be said about our lack of interest in the consequences of slipshod jobs. We have wells dug up and left uncovered waiting for the unwary to fall in. We have buildings that cannot last more than a few years. We have roads that have to be resurfaced every year at great cost to the taxpayer instead of doing a good job that would last at least five years the first time itself. We have fires breaking out and no way for people to find the exits because the exits have been blocked off (as a quick solution) to get more space to fit in even more people into an already crowded space.
I don’t feel that this means we have no way of being any better. It could be that professionalism or pride in one’s work is not an ethic that is inbuilt. We are capable of so much more as we prove when we live abroad and follow rules and do work that anyone would be proud of. Our country needs us to adopt just such an attitude. Instead we choose to give India our worst and take for granted that freedom with which we are blessed.
