And by this title, I don't mean to take a potshot at Ms. Winfrey. What I mean is, we really need to set our priorities right. A foreigner makes a quickfire visit to our country, expresses surprise over our dining etiquette, and we get our knickers in a bunch? Come on, there is so much more we need to get our knickers in a bunch about. That we still eat with our hands is probably the last thing we need to feel upset about - for all you know, Oprah might have got miffed on being served some half-cooked Chicken Dum Biryani she wasn't able to dig her fork into, and hence the outrage.
Let us worry about what we know plagues us. It doesn't take an Oprah to tell us we have plenty to be ashamed about. For starters, we are growing increasingly insensitive - towards ourselves more than towards others. We are making our peace with the contemptible conditions we live in, mainly because we are responsible for creating them. Much as we may like to blame flawed governmental decisions for our miseries, we cannot ignore our own callousness towards maintaining basic hygiene, respecting our fellow civilians, and...don't get me started on traffic discipline and such. We are quick turning into a nation of armchair philosophers who will cry foul over everything from an elected president to apparently errant cops.
We need to learn to respect our cops. They are as human as we are. Every one out of ten times, their actions may not be justified. But never forget they are the ones to face the line of fire each time some gun-toting bastards decide to ruin our lives, before we carry candles in a peace march in "expression of solidarity". They are the ones who stand at polluted traffic signals through the length of the day - yes, those signals that become the death of us in our air-conditioned cars - to ensure they do their best in making our lives easier. And they are the ones who hear of cheap jokes and lame calculations on how much money on a day's average they make while letting off errant drivers with minor bribes. WE are the ones who err. WE are the ones who prefer minor bribes over legal fines. WE are the ones who do not know the penurious conditions these men live in. WE are the ones who drive them to the brink. All this, for a force that at least tries to ensure basic safety standards.
Foreign nationals who visited India often wrote about how unsafe our country is. Now, Indians write about how unsafe our country is. That is hardly the kind of social progress we expect us to make. Women are being raped and molested on schedule, but the newness in the menace is the rising mentality of blaming "deviations from the Indian culture" for this nonsense. The real question we need to ask ourselves is - what exactly is the Indian culture?
Oprah Winfrey sure cannot answer that.
Let us worry about what we know plagues us. It doesn't take an Oprah to tell us we have plenty to be ashamed about. For starters, we are growing increasingly insensitive - towards ourselves more than towards others. We are making our peace with the contemptible conditions we live in, mainly because we are responsible for creating them. Much as we may like to blame flawed governmental decisions for our miseries, we cannot ignore our own callousness towards maintaining basic hygiene, respecting our fellow civilians, and...don't get me started on traffic discipline and such. We are quick turning into a nation of armchair philosophers who will cry foul over everything from an elected president to apparently errant cops.
We need to learn to respect our cops. They are as human as we are. Every one out of ten times, their actions may not be justified. But never forget they are the ones to face the line of fire each time some gun-toting bastards decide to ruin our lives, before we carry candles in a peace march in "expression of solidarity". They are the ones who stand at polluted traffic signals through the length of the day - yes, those signals that become the death of us in our air-conditioned cars - to ensure they do their best in making our lives easier. And they are the ones who hear of cheap jokes and lame calculations on how much money on a day's average they make while letting off errant drivers with minor bribes. WE are the ones who err. WE are the ones who prefer minor bribes over legal fines. WE are the ones who do not know the penurious conditions these men live in. WE are the ones who drive them to the brink. All this, for a force that at least tries to ensure basic safety standards.
Foreign nationals who visited India often wrote about how unsafe our country is. Now, Indians write about how unsafe our country is. That is hardly the kind of social progress we expect us to make. Women are being raped and molested on schedule, but the newness in the menace is the rising mentality of blaming "deviations from the Indian culture" for this nonsense. The real question we need to ask ourselves is - what exactly is the Indian culture?
Oprah Winfrey sure cannot answer that.
