We are like that only

Khaleej Times OPINION

Asha Iyer Kumar (PERSPECTIVE)

15 January 2012, 7:13 PM

When my parents from India and sister from the US recently came on their maiden visit to Dubai, they couldn’t help marvelling at the phenomenal strides the UAE had made in the 40 years of its inception.

They drew frequent comparisons between Dubai and their countries of residence respectively, the folks from the West raving about how contemporary, yet traditional and classic the city of Dubai and the rest of its territorial partners were, and the old folks from the subcontinent awed by just how well the country was run in comparison to the mayhem that prevailed in all walks of life back in India. “Such immaculate governance is unimaginable in India,” said they at every step.

What struck me about their comments chiefly was the despondency they felt over the way affairs were conducted back in India, a banal subject that we nevertheless discussed at length in the aftermath of the failed Lokpal bill and the parliamentary theatrics that preceded it.

The newspapers here gave my father a comprehensive view of the attitude and approach that people had towards life and living in a country where law is supreme, where work is worship, where administrative integrity is uncompromising and where the mind is by and large without fear of violence and crime. The questions that he threw up were not new, but they were compelling in the light of what he had seen, experienced and encountered here during his month long sojourn. Why don’t people respect and fear the law in India? Why doesn’t crime get detected there like it does here? Why don’t trials happen faster there? Why do passengers have to invariably haggle with ranting rickshaw drivers? Why are the roads pot hole ridden and our rides back breaking there? And the most significant of all – why do the same people who strike work or shun labour in the home country embrace hard work here under all conditions?

I had no conclusive answer to his questions. His frustration was genuine and tangible. It is true that while young, able bodied men here worked up to 16 hours a day here and scrimped to send home the money, those back home resorted to blatant apathy. Violence and high handedness have become second nature to our youth back home. According to my father, it was getting increasingly difficult to get labour for common household work like plumbing, masonry or even plucking coconuts from the trees in our yard. The maid in the house found it demeaning to scrub the bathrooms in the house (something my parents are finding tough to do with each passing year) and the unemployed youth preferred to loaf than do menial jobs. Safety of women and senior citizens was becoming a major concern among a people that when transported to another country follows the local justice system unfailingly. So where exactly was our country going wrong and what was it that made our people so civilised and law abiding when in a country like the UAE, he wanted to know.

Perhaps, it is the political system that makes things so difficult there, I suggested, cautiously. Scores of parties with fractious issues and frequent bickering between them is a perfect recipe for misgovernance and administrative malfunction, especially in a country of a billion plus people. Add to it, a “we are like that only” and “nothing will ever change” attitude that we seem to employ more as a ruse to cover our failings.

A graffito I recently saw on a kid t-shirt sums it up. “When daddy says ‘No’, ask mummy. When the law comes in the way, circumvent or break it. This happens amply in India and rarely here. Is it then a surprise that we love being here so much?