Are Indians uncultured, indisciplined, lack professionalism or are they plain lazy

This is a subject which is drawing a lot of attention now a days.  Today I try to look at India from this perspective.  Since time immemorial, from our parents to political leaders to religious figures, all have argued about Indian civilisation being 5000 years old or  Indian culture (Bhartiya Sabhyata).  We respect our elders, we always tend to humbly touch the feet of our elders, we eat the prasad or divine food with all religiousness.   We tend to bow in front of a Church, Masjid or Temple.  Is this culture?  Are we really that cultured or disciplined as our parents and elders tell the world, we are.

This argument will have its supporters and those against it.  I am not arguing for it or against it, I am just giving my opinion on the subject.  Each reader may have his or her own views on the subject. 

First let us watch the two videos.  One is of a scene at a station on Mumbai’s local train network and the other is from Tokyo’s train station

And this one is Mumbai

Notice how the Japanese, despite of being more crowded are a disciplined lot, whereas if you happen to travel on Mumbai’s suburban rail network, you may meet the most disgusting people on earth.  You may hear the choicest swear words, you haven’t heard before.  You may even think of writing a dictionary of swear words.  Don’t be surprised, it is the truth.

Years ago, a friend of mine from Japan, visited India.  During the discussions with him regarding India and Japan, he gave some information which I note down here.  He told be Indians never respect time.   They come and go as they please.  In Japan if you have to attend work from 9 to 5 you have to arrive at 9 and leave at 5.  There is no overtime allowance there.  But in India, if our office starts at 9.00 am we usually arrive at 10.00 have tea and snack by 11.00 and by the time we are ready to work, it is around 12.00 noon.  We Indians tend to spread our work in such a way that the boss has to give us overtime.  In Japan, right from CEO to the lowest official all come to offices on bicycles.  The cars there are only meant for travel during social visits.  In India, if I travel to my office on a bicycle, I will be the butt of joke for many days.  In Japan, everybody right from CEO to the lowest rung have their food and snacks together.  In India, we generally think our lunch time is a food time + meeting and chatting time + having a nap time.  You go to any office from 1 to 3, private or government, believe me,  you will find what I said is true.

This is regarding office.  If you step outside in Mumbai or Delhi (I have named the two of best of our cities), you will literally see the streets littered with everything right from paan stubs to empty coke or pepsi cans.  If you see somebody throwing some rubbish, and try to stop them, they will usually argue with you that whole India is dirty, why you are stopping them.  If you park your car under a building, by the time you come back the top of the car is bound to littered with rubbish.   

The day you wear a new or your favourite dress, somebody is going chew paan and desecrated your prized dress.  This is a way of India, or is it?
A Video of stairway stained with Paan goo

In the office, we are generally privy to certain classified information.  As per work code, we aren’t supposed to discuss anything we see and hear in office.  But do we follow it?  First thing during the lunch break we are going to inform our friends about it and after reaching home, we are going to discuss it with our spouse. 

So where is our Indian civilisation in all of above.  Why aren’t we taught of basic cleanliness, basic punctuality and basic work ethics.

On the contrary, we teach our children to lie, to cheat and be better than the other child by hook or crook.  In today’s India the examination word has become a taboo.  It seems that instead of the child the parents are giving the exams.  The way they prepare for the exam of their child, if they had done the same thing during their student years, they would held some high ranking, top paying jobs now.  The children as always follow by example and more often then not tend to loose their own focus on life.  They become part of a mechanical way of life.

Is this the India we want to inherit for our future generations?  Is this what you want your child to live in when it grows up?

This are very simple questions and the answers are with you.  No amount of debating or arguing would do any good.  You have to think, so please stop for a little while and think.

In the meantime instead of sensitizing the citizens of Mumbai regarding cleanliness, the BMC is on a eviction drive.  Read about it here.

Please write your comments/suggestions on the article above.  You may also kindly write if you have any disagreement with me.

Vijay Prabhu