I know it is going to happen one day or the other. Still, I was surprised, or may be shocked today morning. It might be a very small incident, but it stuck me hard. And that’s why they are called ‘experiences’.
An old lady came in to my office. I have seen her before, I guess this is her second visit to the office after I came here. During the last visit, she explained that a house was allotted to her under Indira Awas Yojana (housing scheme for BPL families) and the construction is going on. Her grievance is that her next instalment of payment has not been made. The first time she came, we couldn’t locate her file and so she was asked to visit again giving us time to find the file. It took a grand week in locating the file and the person who was holding it for such a long time. Anyways, she came today and gave her side of the documents consisting a recent photo of the construction, copy of passbook, copy of the work order and a five hundred rupee note!
May be asking her to visit again had prompted her to include whatever she can afford in the ‘list of documents’, or may be its just a ‘routine’ in this office settled for a lifetime, or it’s just her instincts telling her to do something so as to get the work done. Whatever it is, there it is. A big faced gandhi smiling at me to be accepted.
I am no Gandhi, and I have given many times various amounts, especially during train journeys to the TT to find a seat for myself or whoever is traveling with me. Even I had to give some bucks to the ‘babu’ for my marriage registration. We all would have experiences ‘giving’ for one reason or the other. It is an experience of the first kind for me to be on the ‘taking’ side!
Lucky the file is found already and I was able to process her next instalment, of course, without accepting her generous offer, requesting her not to repeat what she tried to do.
Before we left for the district training, a suggestion was given to all of us in one of the last sessions in the academy. It relates to the scale of corruption, ranging from 0 to 100. Each one of us fall somewhere within this scale, some of us might be around 20, some at 40 some at 70 and so on. It is very rare to have some one very close to the extremes of 0 and 100. So, if I fall at a value say, 35, the suggestion given is to reduce it little so that I might end up at 30 after a certain period of time. The idea is to reduce the scale of corruption just a little from the level of what we used to be. It works effectively as we cannot really compare each other as to who is more corrupt or who is more ‘morally’ right. An individual scale of our own would definitely help.
I think I did that reduction today, instinctively and without repeating any helplessness that I come across while traveling in a train. Time for more people to do the same.
WorthvieW
Hi there! I’m Sethu, your go-to guy for all things tech, travel, internet, movies, and business tips. I love sharing insights and stories that make life more interesting. Let’s explore the world together, one article at a time!
I understand your concern here. It will be very difficult to do something beyond the guidelines or rules (or protocols as you say). So, there won’t be much of issue of mixing emotions with duty. But the empathy should drive the course of action as there will be too many people who would fall within the guidelines. selection has to be done with emotions then !
Good job done Nik.
But I will be little critical on this blog due to my personal experience. I would not look from angle of corruption. But from angle of emotions and duty.
There is always a war between emotions and duty. You have to be very careful as people will play with emotions to get there duty done. Its very difficult to differentiate between true emotions and emotions to get empathy.
Even if you feel they are true emotions make sure everything is as per protocol then only do it.
Do the things right and make sure everything was right. 🙂
Sure dude, we will.
Good work Sirji – Worthview 🙂
Good to read your first ‘experience’ dude…
Well, taking the same note of yours, “I am also not Gandhi”.
But till that last day when we loose ourselves to Gandhi, I am sure we will contribute towards reducing the corruption scale.
I wish that day never dawns !
Yup. that should be the idea. and we will strive for it.
Nice to read Kalyan, while may not be so relevant, what I feel is, while corruption is definitely a big issue, making people to come to offices and branches(Public Sector Banks esp for government sponsored loans) repeatdly is another kind of injury to the poor people. Delivering public services on par with corporate companies is the next level of challenege,
Nice kallu…..Nuvvu ala cheyyagaligav kabatte intha satified ga unnav and intha confident ga cheppuko galigav….super
Good. The significant part is that she went back home with job being done. I am pretty sure that 500 she was offering on the scale is a 100. So by denying a 35 on scale you scored 100 points.