"Potential" is a dirty word

I get irritated when potential is talked about as if giving credit to the organization, place, city, state or nation. Is Madhya Pradesh great because it has tremendous tourism potential and does it give it any credit? Rightfully it should not. Realization of that immense potential is what should give credit and convey a positive impression.
Why do people say that India has tremendous potential and therefore should be regarded as great? Nobody ever talks about the potential of the United States or Britain. The difference is that while we have carefully preserved our potential, others, mostly the developed world has realized it.
Potential is therefore directly linked to deliverance, inversely proportional to be exact. We have done nothing and therefore we have tons of potential and those from the developed world have delivered and have therefore consumed their potential.
Consuming the potential is therefore what matters.
In tourism, the example of Kerala is worthy of emulation. A state known more for its militant trade unions gradually started first appreciating and then consuming its potential in the tourism sector. The state looked around and then realized that its backwaters, the tradition of ayurveda and the coconut lagoons can attract people and the famous Amitabh Kant took no time in consuming the potential of the state. On the contrary, states like the Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Orissa always took pride in the unlimited tourism potential that they ever had, with the difference that current Govt of Madhya Pradesh decided to do something positive about it. And the state surged forward in all spheres, especially tourism.
Let us all abandon the sense of pride that we Indians have started taking in the word "potential". Let the nation, state, city or organization be judged not by the potential they posess, but by what they have done to eradicate the potential.

A failed state

India is never referred to as a failed state. In fact, the rest of the world generally regards it as a superpower in the making. How follish the rest of the world can be. A free nation for over 60 years still half of whose population survives on less that 50 Rs a day! Is it something to be proud of? We have failed at building roads, generating and transmitting enough electricity or in providing any kind of water to its populace and in almost every other sphere of governance.
Cities that resemble large dustbins, cities that we have failed to even keep clean and villages, the lesser said about them the better. India has emerged as perhaps the world's largest mess, a gigantic mess that only our focussed politicians and nincompoop bureaucracy can be proud of.
Is it not sad that India finds a place at the bottom of almost all global indices, be they refer to the purchasing power, the human development index or the corruption scenario. Perhaps the most corrupt of all nations, where every interaction of those governed with those governing is laced with bribery. Every service of the government is on sale for those who can purchase it.
India has now emerged as a nation that is genuinely not for its citizens. It is liveable only for the rich or for bureaucrats and government servants.
Perhaps we a nation are not fit enough or mature enough for self rule. And therefore India is a failed state.

productive nations

A visit to the developed world always leaves me depressed in the end. The excitement at the beginning of the journey is always in deep contrast to the sense of despondancy at the end of the visit when I land in the motherland.
The despondancy is primarly due to reinforcement of the realization that while on a one to one basis we are better, as a society we are far inferior to them. Their roads, footpaths, houses, lampposts, parks, parking slots, railway stations, airports all go to prove their superiority as a system. It pains me to see that we are incapable of even keeping our cities clean, what to talk about building infrastructure.
And I am pained further when the leaders talk about building world class infrastructure. TALK is all they can do, and that is all they do.
Are we not aware of what is plaguing the system. Why evey Bharatvasi who leaves our shores is able to deliver while miserably failing in his home country. Do we not apreciate that corruption and a miserable decision making mechanism in the sarkari setup is the cause of our ills. Corruption, rampant corruption so deeply ingrained that even the corrupt has started believing that the system is responsible for his coruption and the persecuted suffers, but waits for his turn.
I feel sick and angry.

Ideas stink

Ask the man on the street about ideas to improve the country. He would know exactly. Except that in all probability he would not know how to improve his own organization or his own personal delivery in the job that he is in.
This is perhaps one of the biggest tragedies of this country. Everyone knows exactly how the other person or organization should be functioning, but he or she is not prepared to do anything about his own sphere of influence.
And so in the sarkari sector, of which I am very much a part, everyone is busy generating, delivering or accepting ideas. Converting those ideas into physical activity on the ground level is generally and conveniently missing. There are exceptions ofcourse.
My staff often cribs about my dictatorial tendencies, but it is a fact that I do not encourage ideas from my subordinates, except those that directly pertain to the specific individuals sphere of influence or control. Yes one is permitted to give ideas about other peoples sphere of activities very rarely and that too in a positive manner, not as a measure to pull down the other guy or to show oneself off. A free flow of ideas can be generated by an individual only if he has excelled in his own sphere of activities, the excellence being substantiated by state/national level awards. Not otherwise.
And this banning of free flowing ideas has helped me in achieving excellence in almost all my postings, be it in the railways or elsewhere. Wastage of time is minimized, the time so saved getting utilized productively.

Excess of justice is injustice

Being just is good, but an overdose of justice can also be unacceptable at times.
One has to be practical. One has to respect sensibilities. One has to respect the fact that to err is human, but to forgive is divine.
Yes, thre are many instances of officials committing grave irregularities in official as well as personal lives. It is also true that often the punishment awarded in such cases, with exceptions ofcourse, falls far short of the requirement as per the needs of justice. The punishment awarded in such cases is generally less than warranted.
Yes, it is true that corruption cannot and should not be tolerated. But in a society where almost every politician and every bureaucrat is corruption personified, is it really just to expect high moral standards from mere mortals. The tremendous and also rapid degradation in moral values and standards of integrity in the people of this nation in general and sarkari mulazims in particular does not even shock people anymore. Corruption is considered an essential and tolerable part of the system, by all and sundry except some individuals like me who are tolerated rather than accepted by the system.
How long will this go on. How long will people continue to expect sympathy for punishments despite committing crimes that far outweigh the punishment awarded. Being soft shall not help, despite the price that one may have to pay at times. And being a soft state also does not help either. Something that we indians should have learnt the hard way, and if we have not learnt so far despite travelling on a long, winding and treacherous road, perhaps God also cannot save us!

Deceptive appearences

Yes. One should not judge people by what one sees or experiences. But that is how it is. Our judgements, pronounced so magnanimously, are generally based on external appearences and experiences. Human personality is however much deeper that the thickness of the skin. The real person is therefore quite often much different from what is evident from the exterior.
A rough guy may quite often be a soft guy from the inside and someone who appears to be a rogue may turn out to be infinitely superior to the guys who appear to be pleasent on the outside.
The prevalant method of assessing people totally dismisses what the guy may have inside him, something that is not apparent to the casual visitor. And so one makes mistakes, only to regret them later. And this regret is hard to overcome. It causes burns, burns that are deep enough to survive for long but also deep enough to remain unnoticed for long.
How strange and inexplicible!.

Why government offices have to be sloppy?

Is being sloppy, a mandatory requirement for offices classified as government offices? I think yes, for one rarely comes across a government offices that is efficient and smart. Dirty files, sloppy furniture and absence of decent basic amenities define a sarkari office in India. And on top of that there is an official who is unconcerned, generally corrupt to the core, totally uncommitted, and who treats vistors and the general public with utter disdain and contempt.
Why can't something be done about them? Why the same guy who keeps his house in a state of absolute polish and shine adopts a different attitude when it comes to his office? Is it apathy, ignorance or immaturity? Why cant we keep a place where we spend a very substantial portion of our lives in an efficient and smart state? Why cant it be mandatory for sarkari offices to be as efficient and smart as corporate offices and then perform and deliver functions that they are intended for?
But I have learnt my lessons. An efficient and smart offices helps me to perform besides keeping me in a good state of mind. And so the first thing I do on joining anew assignment is to improve first my chamber and then the whole office that directly reports to me. This has generally also resulted in much improved attendance, both in terms of number of days as well as number of hours. The sarkari people than start liking spending time in their offices with consequent improvemnt in the delivery systems.
Perhaps our hindu mindset is responsible. The way we keep our public places of worship is disgraceful to say the least. Each of us who visits our temples ads to the filth and squalor of our temples. Yes there are exceptions like the Vaishno Devi and the Tirumala shrines, but exceptions they shall remain as we shell never learn to keep our offices and places of worship in a smart state.