I am going to write something surprising today, especially given the current calamity. A positive post. A positive post is an act of daring, it takes the writer away from the dark brooding image that is so sexy. Who wants to be seen as a garden bunny and not the dark knight! I am told women love the dark brooding types.
Anyway, let me put it out. We are all used to abusing our nationality and fellow citizens. Right from the morning when we pull out the car to late in the night when someone or the other finds some occasion to burst crackers. But in this man made calamity, one thing has come out. We are not that bad people.
In fact, all the stories that I have heard from people who have been to the banks, both directly and on social media, is that the old are given preference or at least better treatment; that the retired bankers have come back on their own to help; that strangers have genuinely helped each other with food or kindness.
In a room with ten foreigners, we were asked how we continue to the tandav on the edge and not topple over. We reasoned about the complexity of polity and how we never agree with each other and how we value freedom of expression over anything else etc etc. It is a short but very complex question and we all answer in ways that we deem intelligent. Kuch toh insight dikhna chahiye na.
But honestly, any other country would have seen much more violence, loot, ransacking. Surprisingly, we, the nation of thieves and losers, as we call ourselves, have stayed hungry but still abided by the law. We may not follow the traffic rules, we may park in jigsaw puzzles, but may be, there is a slight chance that we are good, polite, caring people.
