The entitled Indian

Just before we started on our trip this time, we went to Sanjay’s house for dinner. During the course of our conversation, Sanjay related an incident that happened at the OM Foundation school that he runs. He went to a classroom and found the waste bin overflowing. He asked the students why it was so and was given the reply “koodawala Nahi aaya, teen dino sey” – the garbage collector hasn’t come for three days. Imagine if the same thing had happened in a Japanese school …. First the waste bin would not have been overflowing because the children would have cleaned the classroom everyday on their own and would have cleared the trash. Second for some reason if the waste bin did overflow, they would have been ashamed that a teacher or visitor saw it that way and someone would have jumped up, apologised and cleared the bin right away. The entitled Indian will do only his job and no more … Who cleans the house ? The maid. Who cleans the streets ? The Jamadar. Who cleans the rivers ? The Government. Who cleans the stadiums ? The company that owns it. What is Swachh Bharat ? A campaign launched by the Prime Minister. 

“The PM is not doing enough – he is not cleaning the streets of Delhi and adjoining areas”. “The Swachh Bharat campaign is a political campaign”. “We just waste money, look at the Western countries, they have better cleaning equipment and their cleaning staff do their work, unlike in India”. “The safai karamcharis are all useless, they never do their job”. All these are great thoughts in the entitled Indian’s mind. When the Swachh Bharat campaign fails, the entitled Indian will smile and say “I told you so”. 

The government offices everyday start at the time they are supposed to .. But imagine for 67 years, many of the government employees were “entitled” to go late, leave early, run parallel businesses and blame the government that their pay hikes were not sufficient. Here are some young Indians sharing candidly about their parents – 

  
  
My uncle works for the Indian Railways and he says, all those people who would saunter in at 11 am and leave at 4 pm and earn a full day’s wages for several years now have started coming in at 9 and work the full day. The entitled Indians now worry about what the Government is doing to make these people productive – you see, just coming to office on time is not sufficient. And those that are having to reach office in time and work a full day, I have a question for you – will you return the salaries that you took without working all these years ? With interest ?

I am entitled to appeasement because I am from a minority. I am entitled to be given alms because am poor and can’t be bothered to use my arms and legs. I am entitled to be given tips because I gave bad service. I am entitled to inherit the wealth because am THE son. I am entitled to inherit the country because I have the “surname”. I am entitled to wash my car when my maid doesn’t get drinking water because it’s the Government’s job to ensure drinking water for everyone. I am entitled to spit anywhere because I pay taxes. I am entitled to run the traffic lights because my dad didn’t put them there in the first place. I am entitled to pray loudly at 4 am in the morning because I live in a secular country and those sleeping must wake up. I am entitled to play Bhajans right through the night because am a devout Hindu and everyone must know that. I am entitled to kill my daughter because she decided to marry a boy from a different caste. I am entitled to ask for dowry because am the son’s mother and I got him educated in London. I am entitled to piss on any wall, because I am THE man. 

 Oh btw I am entitled to sell my country because my leaders said its “mine”. I am also entitled to be called a hero when I ask for help from a terror sponsoring country, because long back, Subhas Chandra Bose shook hands with Hitler and asked for help to fight the dearly beloved Colonial British. I am entitled to call Subhas Bose a war criminal and spy on his family because my leader is the only leader in the world. 

I am an entitled Indian. Right, Sanjay ? Traffic has to be managed by the traffic police, government has to clean up my country, I should be paid for work that I dream of doing, I should be rewarded for supporting the government and the ruling family, I must be fed pre digested food at the right temperature, the treadmill must walk on my behalf to keep my hour glass figure intact, the weights must get lifted so my six pack looks intact, I must be allowed to siphon off money and keep it in a Swiss account for the rainy day, and I must be allowed to protest against the government’s initiatives because another friendly government has paid me to do so.

 I am an entitled Indian and my country comes first. When John F Kennedy asked me what I have done for the country I replied “I was born in my country, what more can I do for my country ?”. I am an entitled Indian. Jai Hind.