Indians - Privately Smart, Publicly Dumb

We Indians are a queer species. Whats most intriguing about us is that we continue to survive, and in many cases thrive not in spite of the way we are.

I recently drove 500km from Cochin to Trivandrum and back in my puny Maruti 800 and I learnt something interesting which can be best put in the words of V.Ragunathan -"Indians are Privately Smart but Publicly Dumb".

Thee is no better place than the open road to observe this phenomenon.

The first thing you notice is the road itself. While the road was being built, the engineer (who has complete responsibility for the project) is rewarded with more funds in case of a delay. This would be fine if he is to be held responsible for any faults in construction but that is not the case.

So the engineer (literally) makes sure the road takes 20 years to build and will break up as soon as it rains because it ensures he can pocket the most money. He is privately very intelligent. But he fails to look at the bigger picture and as a result the country & its people look like fools to an outsider.

The next thing you'd see while driving down the National Highway (or Notional Highway) is the the number of unplanned cuttings & entry/exit points. Take an example : After a 4 lane road is built, I buy land on its fringe and build a petrol pump. Being on one side of the highway my customers are cut by half since cars on the other side of the divider can't turn into my pump.

So, being Indian, what do I do? I take a bunch of goons, and overnight, I break the divider in a convenient place so that I can do more business. I am now making more profit than my competitor down the road. But the fact that there is no yield to turn your car and the fact that the cutting might be in the middle of a blind turn - leading to countless accidents is none of my concern. Noticing his fellow petrol pump owner raking in the bucks, the competitor down the road copies me and we have 2 unscientific breaks in the divider. Privately both me and my fellow pump-owner are intelligent but publicly Indians, as a people, over the long term - suffer.

At a red light we quickly realize that the policeman is looking the other way and zoom through.

Indians spend far too much brain-power on trying to outsmart the law and gain personal gain when standing together and obeying it has far greater benefit. The people are the only ones to blame since we live in a democracy.

The reason for this besides our inherent disobedient nature is the lack of rules and controls. The rap on your knuckles when you do something wrong is too light. The people are happy because they can be privately intelligent, but they don't realize what they are doing...

Of Old men & Wisdom

Every man has a story. The only thing you can take with you to your grave is your story. Every story is made up of small instances, each with great value - like the Mahabharatha. Most of us forget many characters and rich plots because we never cared to write them down, preserve them.

I guess the fact that all four of my grandparents were either well into senility (or well beyond) by the time I could understand them has meant I have been deprived of old people and their wisdom.

A good grandfather, if there is such an expression, is someone who can remember the stories but also knows when to say them.