Chaos Reigns
I have been looking back, thinking back would be nearer the truth, at the headlines of most of the daily news.
Invariably they start with “Chaos reigns…..”
Chaos reigns in the on-line admissions to college.
Only a year ago, students had, despite all its defects, a pretty stable system in which students were free to apply to colleges of their choice, submit themselves to cut-off percentages and reservations of different types depending on the colleges and get quick responses on which college they would get admission. Either their first choice, second choice or whatever.
The important thing is that they all knew where they would be admitted and the colleges started their classes on the due date.
My son got admission to St Xaviers in the first list. My daughter who wanted to study French for her BA did not get admission to the same college because French was not taught at the SSC level at her boarding school in Panchgani.
I was, at that time, post retirement, Associate Director of Xavier’s Institute of Management and a word from me would have resulted in a waiver of the requirement which, ironically, I had obtained for a friend’s daughter the previous year in similar circumstances.
My daughter Anjali went to Elphintsone College, did extremely well in French and went on to obtain French citizenship.
But she never forgave for not putting in a word to get admission to a college of her choice. In this piece I ask for her forgiveness. She is an open and understanding person. She will understand.
Today the academic year will never start. Thousands have no college to go to. Hundreds of colleges are woefully short of students. The mess is complete. It takes one Education Minister to paralyse an entire system and not be accountable for the chaos. He will be back next year having learnt no lessons.
Chaos reigns in dealing with the swine-flu pandemic. It took four solid weeks for the Health Minister and his Ministry to react to the information that we had our first swine-flu patient. And when they did all hell broke loose. First t Minister had to apologize for insensitive remarks about the death of our first casualty. Then our irresponsible media ensured that their ability to generate panic had not diminished since the 26/11 terrorism coverage.
In the midst of a life threatening situation we had to witness with shame our business community fleecing our panic stricken citizens either by the well known hoarding technique with the result that face masks were either not available or sold at astronomical prices.
At Government run hospitals doctors handling swine-flu cases were not supplied with masks and the crucial Tami-flu drug was in short supply or not available due to distribution goof ups or was being stolen by loaders of our national airline.
I write this on the day we our celebrating the 62nd anniversary of India’s independence.
The Road that I live on since 1993 is a noisy road. When I bought the flats the road was so quiet that I could not believe my luck. Only later did I realize that there was no traffic on the road because the road was closed at one end for several weeks for repairs.
Today on Independence Day people living on the Road have assembled in large numbers to hoist the national colours. In the compound of the building in which we live.
The Road Association, ALM 102 (Advanced Locality Management) works very hard to keep our area green, clean, secure and safe.
If the road is in top class condition with the whole long road being paved with paver blocks and the footpaths also done similarly. All from the funds of our elected representatives.
We have a wonderful relationship with our Corporator, MLA, our MP and the Municipal Corporation and the Police.
The Flag hoisting is the highlight of our activities bringing diverse people together to confirm our secularism and our pride in being Indian.
Chaos did not reign. But it “rained”. A show drizzle preventing the lighting of the traditional lamp and delaying the hearty breakfast we share on such occasions.
Chaos did not reign because citizens understand good management of their organisations the value of cooperative interventions in civic, social and political life. Because citizens rise above a level the governments seem to find impossible to do.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Dear Mr. Menezes:
As always your article was very interesting and as always I have my 5 cents to add..…..
I absolutely agree about chaos in most circumstances and I was glad to hear that your Independence Day celebrations went off enjoyably & peacefully. While I submit that it is nice to have at least a few disciplined & peace loving people around, it is my firm belief that in most cases chaos exists because the authorities allow it and in some cases even encourage it. (e.g. Bombay riots in the early 90’s) I recall you wrote about it in a TOI middle.
I always wondered why there is so much more order and discipline here in the US as well as in London & other European cities I have visited. Even my mother commented on it when she first visited us in San Francisco about 10 years ago and later on her subsequent visits to the US. I am sure you have been abroad often and visited Europe as well as America and must have noticed this too. Was it because the American & European people were just born with better genes and that is why were better cultured. Was it really possible that even though we are all human there could be such a big difference between the races? I reluctantly admitted that this was true till August 2005. Do you remember Katrina and what happened in Louisiana? Do you remember the absolute chaos and confusion in New Orleans including the robberies, looting, raping, child molestation etc that went on?
Now, how do you think this could happen in the US, land of the superior & disciplined people?????
The answer was obvious of course…..
It was because there was no law enforcement there during those days. For reasons that are not quite clear, the authorities failed to respond and once this was apparent, it was not just confusion & chaos, it was absolute anarchy.
Do you recall something similar happened in Bombay at the same time? I’m sure you remember the heavy rainfall and flooding in Bombay. Well, Bombay had it much worse than Louisiana, Mississippi and all the other affected places put together. The rainfall was around 10 inches in LA while it was over 37.5 inches in Bombay. There were a lot of people displaced too in Bombay just as it happened here, but Bombay did not experience any looting etc. In fact I believe people were being very helpful and hawkers were offering free vada pavs etc to people displaced by the flooding. This was one of the few times I was proud to be a native Mumbaikar.
This got me thinking again and I realized that the superiority of the white race was a myth, as also the difference in genes and that Indians inherently possess bad genes. People are the same everywhere irrespective of whether they are white, brown, black, yellow or anything in between; and unfortunately there are those that shamelessly disregard the law and give everyone around them a bad name.
If there was better law enforcement in Bombay & the rest of India, there wouldn’t be so much of chaos & confusion around. If there were fines for littering, spitting on the road etc, Bombay would be much cleaner and last but not the least, if there was more traffic control, it would be much easier to drive in Bombay. I drove for almost 6 years; when I lived in Bombay but now find that impossible. The traffic gets worse every time I come down.
Here in the US if you as much as change lanes without signaling, you could get a ticket.
When I first arrived here, I had a hard time breaking in as I was so used to driving in Bombay without any rules and got a couple of tickets in the first 6 months. You probably know the consequences of a ticket here. First of all, you have to appear in traffic court and pay the fine, then your insurance rates go up and as if that is not enough punishment, I get a firing from my husband which lasts for about 2 weeks.
All we need is good law enforcement and then discipline will follow automatically.
Sheila Titus
Houston
September 24th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
You have my forgiveness, Dad;) I love you!
I didn’t even know you had written this piece - just happened to be surfing the Net as I was jetlagged and couldn’t sleep.
September 28th, 2009 at 6:19 am
Dearest daughter
Your forgiveness is all that matters
Dad
September 28th, 2009 at 6:33 am
Dear Sheila
Our President Abdul Kalam explains it so well.
He asks how is it that Indian behaviour on matters of hygiene, courtesy and integrity changes over night when we arrive in Singapore ?
The answer. my friend, is not “blowing in the wind” but in law and order enforcement !!
George