A class for Manners!

The other day while I was learning to drive car, my driving instructor asked me, my qualification. Upon flaunting my P.G degree, she quoted that all Indians are generally well educated and most of them she met were Post Graduates. For that moment I felt proud. On the same day in evening we went to Indian Grocery store in our place. The whole parking lot was full, except for the one right in front of the store. There were some couple of Indian families standing in that parking lot and were chatting merrily. We waited for couple of minutes, and one of them even saw us, waiting there to park our car. But they didn’t budge from their place until my husband had to honk the car. Then they moved out of that place giving an angry look at us. I bet if we were not Indians, they would have moved right away and may be even would have felt sorry. I was so irritated by their behavior and started to say ‘Typical Indian mentality’ but had to hold back myself. May be if this happened in India, I wouldn’t have minded it infact this wouldn’t have been an issue at all. But being outside India since 3 years, there is a definite change in me. Here we get so much used to basic courtesy that if somebody doesn’t show back the same courtesy we become offended. When driving on main roads, when a car which is trying to merge from sub-lanes to main road and if we stop our car and give them right to merge first, people here(USA) will wave their hands at us to say thanks. Even when there is no zebra crossing on the roads, here if somebody is trying to cross the road in a busy town, traffic from both directions will stop immediately to let the person cross the road completely. While getting into a bus or train, even if there would be long queue waiting, people will maintain patience and not try to rub each other just to get in first! Do we even bother about such things back in India, well I never did but now I do!! What is shocking is that even outside India, when it comes to Indian gatherings, the behavior of our desis is almost the same as in India.

Most of the Indians, even in rural India, are now a days pursuing atleast a bachelors degree. But saying so, how many are learning basic manners of life? Do we give enough importance to courtesy in our day to day life? We Indians generally boast upon our multi-culture, multi-traditions, history etc and that includes me. But we don’t get ashamed of scribbling on historical monuments, having a picnic near historical places and leaving our trash right out there, leaving our own historical mark!! Don’t you think being courteous, showing respect to our country’s properties could make India much more beautiful place to stay! But how do we bring this change? Well fortunately I have learnt a lot during all these years but how about people staying in India. We keep saying that what we are, we have that in our genes/blood and nothing could change that. But somewhere we have to do the beginning, changing the attitude of the people, and that has to start from the roots, from the schools! We should have a separate class for ‘Manners’, it should be instilled within us since childhood. Right from schools, children should be taught basic courtesy, respect for our country’s property like historical monuments, rivers, roads, parks etc.

Now when there is so much of economic development in India, I keep asking friends here, who have been settled here since last 10-15 years, whether they are willing to relocate to India, for which most of them didn’t show interest. For most NRIs here money is not the issue, but it’s the respect and people’s good manners which NRIs feel they will miss once they go to India. I am a fierce loyalist to India and I cannot control myself if anybody tries to say anything against about my country. But when it comes to Indians, I always fall short of the words in support.

P.S. I am not trying to say that each person abroad or to be precise developed countries are good in every which way. Similarly i am not trying to say every Indian behaves irrationally. I am just trying to emphasise on good public behaviour which most Indians lack.