Am I at fault.

My request to some one not to jump the queue; plea to some official to restrain from delaying tactics; prayer to authorities that their behavior amounts to dereliction of duty assigned to them; reminder to some one about his deviation from the righteousness; requests to people to be kind and compassion; my efforts to discourage corruption and corrupt people with all my energy and resources, but never with a sense of conceitedness, and what all this yields for me; I am condemned, to make me feel that I am at fault. At times I am branded as cranky, extremist, over enthusiastic and what not. We face a perilous situation in our social system, where every one wants his accomplishment by any overt or covert means of deceit, which leads to lack of discipline and corruption. If we would not strive for setting our system in order, then only a celestial power can resurrect the values of our society and put it back on rails, but at a cost.

Every time I confront situations of discrimination, intimidation, indicipline, exploitation or any situation of the sort; unwillingly, I try to avoid such ventures, so that I would not run into quagmire of exploitation and will get mired under the wrath of hypocritical coward’s. However, I can not resist the temptation so long and I find myself in the center of the controversy, reminding people of their duties and rights, pleading for justice and trying to streamline the system, with varied levels of success.

Some time back I had a chance to remit my cell phone bill at Barzalla telephone exchange counter. As usual a long queue was in shape and I had to wait patiently for more than two hours like other subscribers. A man, appearing to be a non-local, more precisely a security man in civvies appeared from some where, with a bundle of cell phone pay-in slips, and jumped the queue. One of the subscribers a young man objected to his advances but the intruder brushed aside his objection and pursued his agenda of aggression more vigorously and brazenly. At this point the sentry on guard smelt the unique smell of his fellow paramilitary man, got some telepathic signals off the fellow, and started shouting at young man with intimidating gestures. I resisted the tempting situation, as I was already drained due to long wait. The situation turned from bad to worse as other official gunmen joined the cleansing operation to push the young, budding law abiding citizen, almost to the wall. Every soul around and in the line was so scared that none of them could utter a word but would scoff at the young man in heart of hearts. I could not resist any more and tried to make the sentry on duty and his reinforcement aware of their duties and their role as custodians of law. Now the brave guys put the young mans intimidation process in abahayence with a word ‘break  kae baad’, and I was made target and subjected to their way of interpreting  law. The alien who had come with a specific agenda of jumping the queue and remitting a bundle of bills left the scene with a smiling gesture of thanks towards his rescuers and a snigger for others. In brief I managed and doctored the safe passage for the promising young man and myself but surely with a taste of healing touch. Later on every body around were gazing at me as if I had made a blunder and was at fault. Through out the day I was assessing and reviewing my reaction and could not conclude weather I was at fault or not.

Few days back I visited press enclave and parked my car in the open space near the old office of State motor Garages. The moment I was coming out of the vehicle some one shouted at me ,asking for parking charges. I gave the ten-rupee note and asked for a receipt. The fellow  returned rupees five with a unique friendly but intriguing smile. I insisted for the receipt, he replied “then you have to pay full payment of ten rupees”. Any how I paid the full amount and got a receipt titled ‘Srinagar Development Authority parking charges’. The moment I left the place I over heard the fellow saying “ ye choo ‘crack’ basan” (the fellow is not in senses). May be I was at fault under prevailing circumstances.

State Bank of India Residency road branch is one of the primer and busiest banks of Kashmir. Its interior and out side looks have complete resemblance to a busy railway station. Security vehicles parked on every available inch inside and around the bank; security men with huge black tin boxes for collecting bundles of currency notes; long queues; chaos, confusion, and commotion.

Recently my routine banking gave me a chance to experience the hollowness of this otherwise prestigious institution of the banking realm in Kashmir. As I was waiting for my turn to deposit money in my account, my wait extended to almost two and half-hours. During my wait I got a chance to observe customers as diverse as any thing, really it was a great experience. I could see the influential and moneyed being lead through different passages to avoid otherwise cumbersome process of queues; the less important being handled shabbily and people like me given (subjected to) the good and practical lessons of dicipline and rules.

In short after my long wait when I was about to be near the counter an intruder (queue jumper) emerged from some where and indulged in his operation ‘out of turn’. All of us objected to his advances and as usual I was one on the forefront. My over enthusiasm annoyed the intruder and he used some un-parliamentary language against me. Upon confronting a fellow with abusive language and intimidating gestures any human being with a little of self respect becomes furious, so was I. Our argument turned into a scuffle which otherwise I could have not indulged in, at a public place. Now as my self-respect was at stake, there was no other alternative but to repulse the onslaught. The whole atmosphere there got charged and I really felt sorry for the inconvenience to the bank people and the customers. I felt bad about the incident at one point of time as even some of my acquaintance cringed on finding me in the middle of a scuffle, but on the other hand I felt contended about my genuine objection to a fellow with ulterior motives. To defuse tension bank authorities offered me out of turn service as appeasement, but I refused politely with a forceful plea that my objection was against the wrong move by an unscrupulous fellow, not for seeking favors. Alas my pleas could not have the genuine effect on the authorities and I had to leave with out getting my transaction completed. Hope I was not at fault here in this case, but the judgement will be yours (I mean readers).

Mentioning about these few experiences of mine will bothered the readers to judge and assess the damage done to our otherwise civilized, value based and just society by a handful of mentally corrupt, dishonest and unscrupulous element. These elements that show no respect for law of the land and natural justice and commit complete perfidy. We need to adapt a pragmatic approach and discourage these elements at all levels even if we are ridiculed and at occasions branded to be insane. Some one has to be the torchbearer, and start a crusade against such elements. We have to trudge on the craggy path of in discipline, favoritism and corruption created by the materialists and corrupt elite of modern society, with a clear of righteousness, till we achieve our goal. We have to shun the attitude of seeking someone else’s help to cleanse the society, but evolve a system of submission before law and justice and then fight back against the faulty system and defaulters.

 

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