One of the very first trainings of the corporate world included ‘personality development’ (Yeah right, you see for 23 long years I had no idea that the way I talked, smiled, sat, stood, walked, ate was all wrong! Great revelation at such age). So we received a lecture on how to do all the aforementioned things properly i.e. in a way which should be acceptable globally, which means that if I am in UK I should hold the fork in the left hand and if in US it should be in right hand. (Or was it vice versa?) It was a grueling session after which I literally had to open the faucet (or is it the age old tap?) to pour some water on my head to cool it. (Okay I just added this line to reinforce how I felt at the end of it, Confused!!) The point is (what was my point exactly?) that if for time immemorial the British and the Americans cannot come to a single usage of their very own language, why should I bother to be technically correct?
Another fact which I vividly remember from that training was this: (Now comes a bit of story telling for better visualization)
The trainer in its (I’m using neutral gender to make it more of a fictional account, not to be taken personally!) flamboyant style gave out a statement which was as follows, I remember it verbatim, What it said was- “There are three things one should not discuss in public- Religion, Sex and Politics.”
So am bit confused here okay, I agree with the viewpoint that they are all kind of provocative subjects which can lead to altercations. But then there’s another side to it. Come to think of it, if all of our generation, 16-36yrs old, counting from the time of 1991 when the government opened gates to global companies after the 21% devaluation of Rupee opened their eyes and a man who is a great economist (but sadly not-so-great PM) piloted our country to a better path. So this age group was re- taught the global ways that included staying away from the taboo subjects. I am not exactly against the globalization but somehow that one statement refuses to leave my mind. The way I understood it, and I may be wrong, what the trainer implied was that to come out as a civilized, well-behaved executive representing a global company one should not discuss such things. Point taken. But again, picture this.
1. The crime rate in India, especially the crime against women is quite high. One of the contributing factors to this statistics is the lack of education, no freedom of expression and yeah right, the hushed tones! (We are civilized remember?)
2. The years marked in red: 1947, 1984, 2002 etc by the communal riots. The reason being the lack of tolerance in general public.
3. And our current state politically!
But what we have is indifference, because that’s what we have been taught. And no amount of bollywood flicks and sporadic missions initiated with vigor by activists and conveniently forgotten later is going to change the basic indifference. We are in fact stuck with an educated young population too busy in making their mark, an over active media too busy in scandalizing and some selected few who know how to make the above two dance to their tunes.
So now a quick list of things I should let go:
I am supposed to be indifferent to the recent terror attacks, the root cause of which is corruption, what else can be the reason for the frequent attacks, why is it that the US of A had just one after which no one can touch them but we are the punching bags? We are supposed to be a young nation with just 63 years of independence, where’s the patriotism gone? It again can be connected to politics so no talking of that please.
The cases pending from the riots of 1984 are still on, but no talking of that again, what if its 26 years too late.
Recently, Rahul Gandhi politically tried to brave the regional politics, there was a lot of politics involved, so yeah we all watched it on the tele and maintained safe distance, but he said something while addressing the students in Kerala, what he said was this, “I don’t expect the majority of you to spend most of your time in politics, but be aware, just awareness of the fact that in our country two different ideologies exist, one which says and sticks to ‘we all are Indians’ and that everyone has the right to be wherever they want to be and the other ideology that brings disharmony.”
Apart from the politics of the whole issue I liked this particular part which at least talked about changing the indifference to awareness.
I hope that in the rat race to come out as the civilized beings who maintain decorum we don’t lose our opinions, our ideologies and our morals. That would be too much of loss and not worth it.
So seriously, lets start talking about the taboo subjects.
Another fact which I vividly remember from that training was this: (Now comes a bit of story telling for better visualization)
The trainer in its (I’m using neutral gender to make it more of a fictional account, not to be taken personally!) flamboyant style gave out a statement which was as follows, I remember it verbatim, What it said was- “There are three things one should not discuss in public- Religion, Sex and Politics.”
So am bit confused here okay, I agree with the viewpoint that they are all kind of provocative subjects which can lead to altercations. But then there’s another side to it. Come to think of it, if all of our generation, 16-36yrs old, counting from the time of 1991 when the government opened gates to global companies after the 21% devaluation of Rupee opened their eyes and a man who is a great economist (but sadly not-so-great PM) piloted our country to a better path. So this age group was re- taught the global ways that included staying away from the taboo subjects. I am not exactly against the globalization but somehow that one statement refuses to leave my mind. The way I understood it, and I may be wrong, what the trainer implied was that to come out as a civilized, well-behaved executive representing a global company one should not discuss such things. Point taken. But again, picture this.
1. The crime rate in India, especially the crime against women is quite high. One of the contributing factors to this statistics is the lack of education, no freedom of expression and yeah right, the hushed tones! (We are civilized remember?)
2. The years marked in red: 1947, 1984, 2002 etc by the communal riots. The reason being the lack of tolerance in general public.
3. And our current state politically!
But what we have is indifference, because that’s what we have been taught. And no amount of bollywood flicks and sporadic missions initiated with vigor by activists and conveniently forgotten later is going to change the basic indifference. We are in fact stuck with an educated young population too busy in making their mark, an over active media too busy in scandalizing and some selected few who know how to make the above two dance to their tunes.
So now a quick list of things I should let go:
I am supposed to be indifferent to the recent terror attacks, the root cause of which is corruption, what else can be the reason for the frequent attacks, why is it that the US of A had just one after which no one can touch them but we are the punching bags? We are supposed to be a young nation with just 63 years of independence, where’s the patriotism gone? It again can be connected to politics so no talking of that please.
The cases pending from the riots of 1984 are still on, but no talking of that again, what if its 26 years too late.
Recently, Rahul Gandhi politically tried to brave the regional politics, there was a lot of politics involved, so yeah we all watched it on the tele and maintained safe distance, but he said something while addressing the students in Kerala, what he said was this, “I don’t expect the majority of you to spend most of your time in politics, but be aware, just awareness of the fact that in our country two different ideologies exist, one which says and sticks to ‘we all are Indians’ and that everyone has the right to be wherever they want to be and the other ideology that brings disharmony.”
Apart from the politics of the whole issue I liked this particular part which at least talked about changing the indifference to awareness.
I hope that in the rat race to come out as the civilized beings who maintain decorum we don’t lose our opinions, our ideologies and our morals. That would be too much of loss and not worth it.
So seriously, lets start talking about the taboo subjects.
