Sabh kuch chalta hai, in India! Why does India not feel the pinch when the whole world is crashing around them? Why does a person agree to stupid demands in India even when he knows that they are silly and worthless? Why does an Indian agree to someone who has cheated him and let him go even if he knows what the other person has done?
We in India have a very peculiar attitude called chalta hai. We also have another characteristic within us and that’s called tolerance. We tolerate everything in our lives.
Look at the dirt on the roads or dug up roads. We do not bother much even after there are huge potholes in them. The road hasn’t see any tar or cement for years and still we do not seem to mind.
The man beats up his wife and kids and comes home dead drunk and we do not mind. We see the usual names of people who haven’t paid taxes or society charges posted on notice board and these are the same people who don’t mind. They continue not to pay them while others do it diligently. We see the old man veer towards young women on the road even when there is so much space to walk and yet we don’t mind him falling on the young woman. We say he has the itch(khujli)!
We see children get a trashing from their parents or teachers and know that it’s logical. No one complains. Our bikes aren’t starting and you give it solid kicks or maybe bend them over and they seem to purr then. We patch our tires a couple of times and it never bothers us. We stand in queues at stations or banks as well as bank online and still we never complain. When we hear press one for credit cards, two for debit cards and so on and still we can’t find the button for talking to an officer, it doesn’t matter since we try it all over again and again. Such patience and perseverance we all have!
We go to the hospital and take out our number and wait and wait. Before us the receptionist gets her acquaintance admitted breaking the queue and we don’t mind. We know the water is not filtered and still drink it. We eat bhel and chat from roadside which is served in the most unhygienic plate and feel good after tasting it. Asking the chatwala for additional puri or dry bhel. He willingly gives.
We see people taking stuff from some shop under the nose of security and we don’t bother. We buy tubes or bulbs which do not conform to any standards and yet we don’t worry about it. We see people urinating on roadside or shitting on rail tracks and we don’t mind.
This is supposedly a healthy attitude or is it truly tolerant, I cannot understand.
Paying bribes to officials, breaking signals and if caught calling up big influential people is our way of life. Hoodwinking the meter of auto, electricity or water never seems to worry us much.
The rot has stuck in so deep that we are very amenable to every silly and idiotic situations. We cannot make do without song and dance in our films. Garish clothes and loud noises are our forte.
Ask anyone in India and they will agree with you on anything since they all believe in Chalta Hai!
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