Joys of Bribery, Blogging and Racist outlook

“You cannot enter this room with this ticket” says the lady attendant outside an Indian Railways’ “Upper Class” AC waiting room.
“I know that madam…how much should I pay for 2 hours” I replied squeezing my eyes and widening my mouth.



"I want either less corruption or more opportunity to participate in it"

This was how I bribed a woman for the first time in my life and after doing that I actually felt quite good and this was the first time I initiated the bribery. Bribery doesn’t mean splurging money on every paan-spitting lousy sarkari babu (clerk/official/peon) but efficiently tipping off poorly paid government employees so that your work is not hampered. Bribing can be embarrassing but it’s a win-win situation for both the parties. I would like to mention that I'm not in favour of corruption, it's detrimental to the smooth and democratic function of the society...you can read my take on this from here (Cynicism of an Average Indian and the "Vicious Circle of Corruption")

This all happened during my recent visit to the southern city of Chennai during Good Friday and Easter Sunday Holidays. It was my maiden trip to South India.

I have been born and brought-up in eastern India and am likely to be prejudiced about other parts of India but I did notice something about the south Indians in particular. Indians in general are corrupt and unhygienic but south Indians are hygienic and north Indians corrupt.
I’ve earlier announced my voluntary retirement from blogging but I revoked my decision (after public gatherings, suicides and hunger strikes to resume blogging). There is a thing about blogging which gives you an alter ego. People like to call you by your blog name, they mock your blog, it’s always you and your blog, these things always motivate a blogger like me to keep on writing.

Recently, our college had its Gymkhana Elections for the highest student post, the Vice-President. I decided to sideline myself from all the hullaballoo of these elections but ignoring someone is not easier than being indifferent. Candidly speaking, I do not know what powers the VP of our institute possess and I don’t even intend to acquire the knowledge, I simply don’t care.

To quote one of my comments
“I know people who campaigned for one, supported the other and voted in the favour of the third; to top it all, they shook their hands with Celestine(VP, IIT KGP Students Gymkhana) after he won...true spirit of KGP :P”

Share your grief, excitement, disgust and whatever emotions you have about my return to blogosphere…

Cynicism of an Average Indian and the "Vicious Circle of Corruption"

“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.”
- Sidney J. Harris
Poverty, corruption, illiteracy, malpractices have found an irreplaceable place in the high-school social textbooks. These words have an everlasting effect on the immature minds and mould them into cynic about Indian bureaucracy and political system.
Ask any young educated Indian about politics, legal system, government officials or college professors, he will have only one word to describe and that is “hopeless” that too with a disinterested look on his face.
The problem lies in our system which resists “change”. Indian people should start believing that change is the law of nature. Due to this mentality, the vicious circle of corruption goes on and it has an aggravated trickledown effect on other government machineries. A young undergraduate student goes to bank for a loan and he is asked for various documents, names of which he has never heard of before. After a span of few years when he is in his twenties he wants to get a driving license; for that he has to bribe. Same thing happens when he gets whims about “foreign-soil” and its glamour and luxurious lifestyle, he has to fill the pockets of policemen and give few 100 rupee notes under the table to the passport agent. After spending 3-4 years in abroad, comes back and gives civil services examination, qualifies in it and immediately gets into power; and now the vicious circle takes a half revolution. The coming few months are spent in saying no to “corruption” but as we all know it hardly happens that a public servant escapes the pressure of the boss or the greed of quick and easy money. He also supports his actions on the grounds that he has given it, so it’s the time to take it back with 200% interest. His hunger never ends and soon the vicious cycle of corruption is completed and it always goes on.



Even if few people do succeed to remain honest in their profession their self-respect and dignity is hurt. There is a funny incidence about a newly-appointed IRS officer who is being offered “posting in a good place” by a peon of his office. I mean there is no way a self-respecting person can handle this insult. (No pun intended)
While vicious cycle of corruption follows its periodic motion it irritates the common man and his beliefs are reinforced and he turns a poor cynic Indian. He gradually forms a belief system that Indian system is hostile towards change. In addition, the overly obsessed Indian mindset of “extrapolation without proper analytical reasoning” even worsens the situation prevalent in our country.
This has to change very soon in India. However, I doubt that to completely bring corruption, poverty and illiteracy to a tolerable level it’ll take at least 20 more years even if we start working from right now.
Let’s uproot the cynicism within us and plant a seed of hope and vision in ourselves.


PS: The IRS Officer, I mentioned in the post is Arvind Kejriwal.

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