Inner Circle

Two things that I read in the past week made me write this blog.

Firstly, Warren Buffet in a recent interview said that it’s always better to be with people who are superior in attitude as compared to you. It always helps you to become like them i.e. better.

Secondly, I was reading a book, “Hitler and the Nazi leaders” by John Lattimer. The book is on the psychological analysis of the Nazis tried in the Nuremberg trial of 1945. What I perceived from the book is that no doubt Hitler was an evil but he was well misguided by his inner circle of Goring, Ribbentrop, Himmler, Bormann and others. They not only supported him in his endeavours of peril but most of the times aggravated the situation by suggesting ideas which were oblivious to even Hitler!

Now let’s take the case of Chandrashekhar Azad. His inner circle was the pillars of strength on whose support he was able to convert his brilliant ideas into successes. So has been the case in many other stories told and untold.

So, what we observe is that the inner circle has a great influence on one’s actions and thinking. So it becomes duly important in one’s part to select his inner circle wisely.

A good inner circle always helps in keeping our actions checked and doesn’t allow us to stray from our destined correct path. They constantly remind us of the consequences of what may happen when we go wrong and if needed bring us to our senses by resorting to rebukes. They encourage us in our successes and help us to achieve greater heights in our life. The immense contribution and support they bring in is immeasurable and can’t be paid back.

A wrong inner circle of friends will not only discourage in harder times but will certainly lead us to doom when we take even a small step in the wrong direction. Most often they will expedite it instead of braking!

It is the human nature to be praised and chaperoned. No one likes his actions and thinking to be questioned leave alone be challenged. Because of this inherent nature, we tend to populate our inner circle with persons who never say no to anything we do. Others who are well-wishers but speak with their tongue-in-cheek attitude phase out of our lives. Alas, it’s so true for almost everyone we know!

It must be kept in mind that we don’t have any control in selecting our blood relations but we certainly have the utmost control on whom we can consider to be our near ones, the persons of the inner circle who always support in distress and encourage in success.

So, let’s exercise our right wisely and become “better” as Buffet suggested.

The Corrupted Life

2G, CWG, ISRO, Radia,…., scam, scam, scam everywhere. The situation is such that whenever you open a day’s newspaper it’s either an Arab uprising in some Tahrir square or a new Indian scam bigger and exorbitant than the last one. Even the PM has accepted that scams do exist at the higher levels and Indian politics is getting murkier with every passing day because of coalition (a)dharma. And the biggest loser is the exchequer who is losing without even knowing about the beneficiaries and the benefits. So, a common man has all the rights in the world to abuse the hideous beneficiaries. But is the common man corruption free ???

So, I thought why not think about the amount of little corruptions, the “चाय पानी ”, the exchequer does in his life. Let’s start from his birth or say little before the birth..

Just before his birth, generally the father has to shelve a few tenners to get good service at the nursing home where the exchequer is to be born. After the birth, another few hundreds and a few tenners have to be provided to facilitate the birth certificate from the local municipality, corporation or the panchayat as the case may be. Whatever be the size of your locale, the money has to flow out of your pockets! Then a few years go without any trouble. As soon as the kid becomes eligible for the kindergarten, the parents have to go through an agonizing interview and whether they clear it or not they have to provide the capitation fee to a tune of few thousands to get the school of their choice. The same procedure is repeated when the kid has to go from kindergarten to primary school. The school life one can say to be the life of least corruption. The 10 years of school life is the time when one’s conscience and morals have a clean slate.

Come class XIIth, the whole country’s youth will rush to the local bodies for certificates of domicile, caste, validity, income and what else. And as we all know, all these will be completed only when provided with the facilitation money. And that is what we do to get them done. If one is not lucky his admission to the college of his choice is again achieved only after paying the required capitation fee. After getting the degree, a lot of ‘setting’ both in terms of money as well as contacts has to be done to land in the job of our choice. Even after getting the job, the bribes continue to get the required promotions. In day to day life, ‘चाय पानी ’ has to be provided for getting trivial jobs like getting a railway ticket to getting your plumbing done. And don’t ask what we have to pay through to get jobs like getting a telephone connection to be done swiftly and easily. Such is the world that the bribe doesn’t leave you even after your death. Your kin has to pay up to get your death certificate swiftly so that you can be cremated peacefully!

This act of getting our job done easily and swiftly, we resort to every day bribery in our life in form of ‘चाय पानी ’, capitation fee, facilitation fee or by any other name. So, when some uncommon among the we commons reach the top posts they can’t resist their natural way of asking and paying and land up with such big scams !!!!!!

One of my colleague rightly says that it’s time to add another monkey to Gandhiji’s existing “Hear No Evil”, “See No Evil” and “Speak No Evil” monkeys. And this monkey would be “Think No Evil”! Hope so that may reduce the evil of bribery if not completely eradicate it.