We are rude

The standards I demand out of life are impossibly high and mostly things fall short of my standards. I guess you would say I am a hopeless perfectionist. Whatever the topic my job, the weather, the people I interact with, the state of affairs of the country at large - nothing is good enough for me. Recently in the July issue of Readers Digest there is a list of rude cities with Mumbai topping the list. They rated the cities on the courtesy levels by three tests & a lot of volunteers who tested people from Madrid to Mumbai, from Buenos Aries to Bangkok. Lynne Truss in her international best seller "Talk To the Hand" , claims that we live in "an age of lazy moral relativism combined with aggressive social insolence" where common courtesies are "practically extinct"

I am sure nowhere else in the world will you see people sticking gum on the bus seat they have vacated. Nowhere else will you see artistic blade jobs on train berths. And last but not the least ever heard of "SpitFire", & they are not the fire & forget type of missiles. I am sure people of other cities in other parts of the world don't spit at pedestrians or rather overtaking vehicles from running public buses. On a personal front I while overtaking a public bus will first glance at the opposite traffic and then see all the windows to make sure that there are no heads jutting out, just about to spit. Still some of the passengers are so skilled at the art of spitting that they can sit upright and shoot a jet of phlegm or pan juice, four lanes across. Meanwhile the opposite traffic if its a public bus he senses what am I doing and doesn't slow down accordingly. The collision avoidance is left up to last millisecond manoeuvrings & GOD, haven't I been lucky.

If we have to salvage our reputation as an ancient land of culture, we need to get our acts right. There is an entirely new generation which views contemptuous behaviour as a an apt conduct of people on the move. We can start at home, by telling ourselves not to get angry at the servant who has been a loyal servant for two decades when he is a little late with breakfast.

As Arthur Schopenhauer said, Politeness is to human nature what warmth is to wax. I might not be too wrong in thinking that the world could be my oyster if it isn't already, in terms of my reach as well as reaching out. All that I am saying is only my opinion but the facts remain facts. To balance this criticism with praise I can just say "I love my INDIA" Still. I am not out to change the country by blogging about it, I am still trying my level best to avoid those 'Spitfire missiles' He He