It's not just the Terror Attack...

Like in our personal life, I wonder why failures and life-threatening incidents make breeding grounds for change. Proaction is a rare trait. But as a nation, like many of us, we are extremely reactive. Also our reactions seldom treat the root of the problem. We are a nation that believes in quick-fix. Of a people who certainly don't believe in win-win and collective victories. Take for instance, the rickshaw wala at the airport who will refuse to take you to your destination on 'as per meter' charges. His immediate craving is self-rewarding. There is no foresight that a trustworthy nation is a tourist's delight. That the long-term demand will outweigh his selfish motive by an exorbitant measure. And this attitude is pervasive across the socio-economic spectrum. Identify with that exporter who sells imperfect goods for a one-time windfall gain? Or the youngster who, on breaking a signal, looks behind and says with nonchalant ease "Chill guys, I'll handle it!"? The problem obviously is with how it is handled. I've done it so many times. And now it's part of my instinct. To bribe, to escape unscathed with only my self in mind. And yes, I know "That's the way it is!". But like we do with our personal inadequacies and failures, we accept the public ones too. From "That's the way I Am" ... we've moved on to "That's the way We Are". The way we become numb to our private consciences, the public conscience goes for a walk too. The harsh truth is that we seek only self-rewarding victories (even at the cost of public loss). We will hound our maids to clean the rooms but not say a word to the reckless taxi driver who leaves his mark across the city landscape. They say good judgement comes from bad experience. For India, they should've been more quantitative. You see, we're good at numbers. Someone is testing our math in a way we never wanted.

I am an optimist but an optimist often loses his grip on reality. The reality is that this is not only about terrorism. It's about our collective character. We may invest in our armed forces but the question is - "Will we look at this chink in our armour?"