There is an old saying that if you want to judge a man’s character; look at his shoes. So many times you would hear it in the movies, or read it a book, the same quote referencing someone’s shoes, clothes, watch, how they treat women and the list is endless. In my opinion, if you want to judge someone’s true character, look at how he drives or behaves on the road.
When AAP won the election this year in Delhi and BJP’s candidate Kiran Bedi was completely bowled out, someone commented that it is because Indians would never vote for a cop who is known to be a stickler of rules because as a community, we love to break the rules. It is in fact a general opinion about Indians that some people consider merely as a stereotype but I believe that it is a harsh truth about us. Take a small drive on an Indian road in any city and you would realize that we follow the traffic laws only when there is a cop around. If there is no one to penalize, then half of the people on the roads would put their convenience before the law. We are ready to risk a serious or possibly fatal accident by jumping a red light, or driving in the wrong direction, or entering a one way but would not tolerate a wait or delay of 5 to 10 minutes because that sounds like an inconvenience to us. If you think about it seriously, there are conditions that determine whether or not an Indian would follow the rules, three laws that govern each every law in our country, the three laws of laws in India.
- If we are benefiting from a law, not only we would follow it but would also respect and absolutely love it. We would often discuss the law with our friends and families, praise the government that came up with it and criticize people who are against it.
- If a law is of slightest of inconvenience to us either physically, mentally of financially, we would absolutely hate it and refuse to follow it. We would criticize everyone who is in favor of the law and praise people who are against it.
- If a law is neither of benefit nor of any inconvenience to us, it would entirely depend upon our mood whether or not we chose to follow it. Our opinion would change every time our mood changes.
Please note that it is just my personal opinion that you may or may not agree with but if you gave it a thought, you would come to realize that how true it in fact is and how it applies to each and every one of us. One of the examples that I can think of is how we all absolutely hate to pay taxes. Each month we crib and cry about how we lost money even though we all know that it is this very money that is being used to run the country. But think for a moment, if the government passed a law that for every tax that you pay, you will get something for free for the entire month, would you still cry about it? It is not the betterment of the society or country that we think about, it’s just our own good that we can only think of. It also makes you wonder if that is the very reason why we as a nation are still not completely unified, doesn’t it?
