In yet another aspect where Indians score over the world
must be the accepting and accommodating nature of Indians. Not only do we value
everything we have, but we also tout it to the world outside as a ‘unique
Indian aspect’ found nowhere else but in India.
It is perfectly acceptable to have foreign MNCs peddle sub-standard stuff to us…afterall we seem to be paying lesser than other countries..where else would you get a Rs5 chips packet or a Re 1 shampoo? Our toothpaste is chalkier, our soap less moisturizer, our ready to eat packets are slow poisons, our cosmetics are skin abrasives. But they are big brands you know. So we use them and will continue to use them. Our ‘export’ quality is the good quality stuff that we can’t buy while the stuff we buy from foreign brands is the worse quality many times the price..but who cares if we get the latest styles right? Some of my friends even get baby diapers from abroad because they are ‘softer’…but then perhaps babies abroad are more delicate right..and need diapers all day long unlike many of our cloth nappy wearing babies?
It is okay if the mangoes and all fruits are pesticide laden. After all what can we do? How can we not eat Hapoos? So we accept and life goes on. And yes, then we even have purifiers that claim to remove all pesticides and ‘harmful elements’. It is okay if cows eating plastic and garbage are milked and who knows our milk isn’t some white powder anyway. But again what to do? Change the milkman maybe?
We pay a lot of taxes yes. But you could say they are less
than many countries such as the US so that is okay. What is also okay is the
garbage strewn on the roads, footpaths, road dividers, and everywhere you look.
So what if the road is terrible on the way to work. It is still better than
what it would be after the monsoons as long as we can drive on it. So what if the
footpaths have encroachments – hawkers, shops, garbage, parking spots, huts and
you cannot walk on them, the roads are there for all to walk. It doesn’t matter
anyway. The bikers can run you down on the footpath as well and get away with
it. Talking of roads and the brilliant infrastructure we have in the city, I mean the eastern freeway,
the bandra-worli sealink (2-3 good roads in the whole city), obviously prices
of Rs 2 crores for a matchbox unit are so justified anywhere in the distant
municipal Mumbai limits. The rest of the connecting roads be damned.
I wonder if it is our ‘Chalta hai’ attitude that has prevailed,
the fear of backlash from anyone or the lax attitude of anyone in the
government office. Whatever be the reason, we learnt to compromise. We
compromised, accepted, created a little noise maybe, but then went back to our
peaceful routine, accepting everything like the Zen masters. On
the side, bad roads will continue killing people, our food, water and air will
be the slow poison to kill us amongst the other things. We can either put up, change brands, use more
home cooked food (still pesticide ridden), get everything from abroad or flee
abroad or maybe create some small movements to change things (which will die
anyway)..forgive me for being so pessimistic!
However things are changing. A large organization has been brought to its knees for the poor quality product they have sold us for years. We never believed fried squiggly dough could be healthy, but we didn't think it literally had poison either. Abroad they would have had millions of dollars of
lawsuits, but in India…chalta hai, they ll get away with it, you and I both know. As a result of this case, there are several organizations Indian and MNCs scurrying for cover with products they never should have sold to us in the first place. May such organizations that deem us unworthy of quality products remain
in the covers forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment