There are certain traits which I have observed in people from our "parent's generation". And these I have observed with startling consistency. Let me present them in front of you. I have given arbitrary examples along with them which indicate the presence of those traits, just for the sake of completion. I am certain you wise people know better!
(By saying our parents generation, I wish to highlight the point that the people presently at Decision making levels in all Indian organisations are people from that generation.)
1.Lack of discipline
e.g The lining of every public staircase is red (the red of paan), filth is littered everywhere on roads, railway lines ad infinitum.
2.Resistance to change
Do I need to elaborate on this? Anyways for the sake of it let me give some examples. When computerisation started people opposed it. Now if IT systems are brought in to minimise paperwork in govt.offices people with oppose.Introduction of digital meters for auto-rikshaws has been opposed.Any procedural change for improving efficiency is vigorously opposed by people. Forget organisations, even at your home if you try to change certain ways of doing things, just check the reactions of your parents. I don't need to say any more.
3."Chalta hai" i.e indifferent attitude
Ranging from potholed roads, open (red) distribution boxes on roads,tangled overhead distribution lines right upto terrorist attacks people are "getting used" to all these things!
4.Difficulty to learn new things
How many govt employees can make full fledged use of email? Forget email, how many can use all the features of their mobile phone?
5.Awestruck fascination for "foreign" things
e.g : Narain karthikeyan compared to Michael Schumacher, Mumbai compared with Shanghai, Brahmos compared with Tomahawk...
Other than that if a "Gora firangi" is seen in a public place just look at the awe with which people stare at him. I have heard my friend's experience onsite in England that our people stand up by default if a white collegue comes near them while they are working. That is an inner tendency to apparently show respect to a white as is successfully imbibed by the British 'Indian' education.
6.Ability to do things only as they have been taught
Old Govt. red tape still is as it was 50 yrs ago.Matter in govt.documents is still following same template followed on and on for generations.The industry has shifted to the American way of writing letters which is more direct, crisp and simple, unlike British way which is pompous and cumbersome for e.g "Kindly" is replaced by "Please", "Thank you" instead of "Thanking you",a simple "me" instead of "the undersigned".
Have you tried to understand any legal document like an agreement for Leave and License? Can someone tell me what "hereby" and "thereby" mean ?(really I mean it, I am sincerely asking this question..) Really is it required that legal documents be so cryptic and pompous?
7.Attitude between Parent and Child, Boss and Subordinate,Security personnel and Ordinary people, Customer and Waiter like British Sahib and Indian Slave
In short this can be called "I am superior, you are inferior attitude"
Majority Indian organisations have this problem.The sahib wants fear, respect and unconditional obedience from his slave and his job is to extract work from slave.A similar attitude is observed between senior and subordinate.This may give good results for manual abour and clerical jobs but it is being applied to creative
endeavours like research and development!
8.Inability to judge the relevance of present conventions
Check the colour of all government buildings- the same dull,dead,unenthusiatic colours used to paint even after 50 yrs. of independence. I am yet to see a govt. building with bright coloured walls.Ask anyone why do we need to used dull colours to paint govt. buildings. They will say there must be "some reason" but wont be able to point out exactly what it is.(..or maybe that they dont have the time to think about such insignificant issues!)
People do not realise that the aim of use of such colours by the Raj was to finish off every bit of enthusiasm of "clerks" and that they should not be inspired to get any creative ideas outside their sphere of work. Thus they become nothing more than "supressed and depressed" accounting machines.
Has anyone given this a thought that if the workplace is made vibrant with light and pleasant colours, what psychological effect it will have on people, that they would feel enthused and that they would like working there.
9.Fear of change
No admisnistrative, judicial or academic procedures are being revamped for the fear of the "unknown" repercussions...Everybody complains about bureaucracy and red tape but no one wants to do something about it.
10.Short-sightedness
Even when Dr.Ambedkar stated that reservations should only be enforced for 10 years after independence, it has continued for over 60 years. They are still not being removed for fear of losing votes. Look at the horrendous dimensions the reservation 'thing' has assumed. It has had the effect of degradation of the quality of HR and consequently the quality of work also.
Theres one funny analogy I wish to make. Suppose there are two regiments of soldiers - Brahmin and Quota Regiment. The former is trained with assault rifles and the latter managed to train only with pistols because of their "backwardness". Now in order to uplift the Quota regiment would you give them preference to go to War first by giving them reserved seats for war? Naturally the pistol training is going to prove inadequate and they are going to have maximum casualties. Would you rather make "sure" that the Quota regiment get proper assault rifle training for their upliftment?
Exactly the same is happening w.r.t higher education. Reserved category students get into Higher Ed. and are not able to cope up. The result is multiple KTs or worse - year drop. One direct example is that my own class strength in First year engineering was 60 but by the time we reached last year of engineering we were reduced to a little less than 40! And make no mistake, the ones getting KTs and drops were from reserved category. Merit.Defeated.
The people of their generation genuinely lack vision. I am not talking just about politics. Even about small household matters you will notice the same thing!
11.Failure to take responsibilty
After the recent terrorist attacks, not even a single authority accepts a failure of their functioning.No one takes responsibility for their failure.Its all a blame game.Our so called leaders lack the intestinal fortitude and humility to introspect.
12.Cynicism
Talk about any problem, talk about possible solution to the problem and anyone you talk to will respond "This wont achieve anything.Kuch nahi ho sakta.It has been this way and will continue this way.Yeh aisa hi rahega"
13.Thinking in rigid categories i.e crisp logic
Let me give a very relevent example. When I talked to people regarding the Govt. building colours and asked why should dull colours be used, why not vibrant colours then one of the arguments was " How can you use "bright" colours? They will look very offensive and shouting!" Then I had to clarify that when I say "not dull" that does not mean "Very bright" like Red, Crimson, Yellow,Green (i.e fundamental colours). I mean light and pleasant colours like light blue, light pink, cream, light violet etc
Do you see, these people only think in extremes. Take anything else for that matter. They will argue only in terms of extreme ends.Observe their line of thought next time you talk about some issue.
14.False sense of tolerance.
This is essentially a derivative of "chalta hai" attitude but is a bit different. That the Indian public has tolerated anything and everything like pot holes, corruption, criminalisation of politics, inefficiency etc since the last 60 years is not an indicator of tolerance but of indifference and lethargy. These things are falsely projected as tolerance. What should never have been tolerated has been so. And that is why I feel that our generation is suffering because of the wrong tolerating policies of our parent's generation.
15.Hypocrisy
This is one thing I have widely observed in these people. That they do not want to admit the truth of the situation. Something like, if there is no work in office we will say that there is no work presently. But these people will never admit that. I must say our generation is frank and matter-of-fact about any situation which is not so with them.
16.Complacency.
These people will blatantly justify every single system they have been through whether it is education, work, life-take anything under the sun. The line of thought behind this phenomenon is : "(Since I have been through the given system or I am a product of this system) If I call the system flawed, it means that I am flawed". And then people get defensive about the system.
In the end, let me say a few words in general about people from that generation. Certain things that are too, tooo common you will agree.
They have this habit of comparing the salary, facilities, resources etc. they used to get with what we get now. Then if we say that certain improvements are required they will say you must be grateful what you get , when I was of your age, I used to get only...
They have this attitude that our generation people must be made to pay for whatever we get, that we must "earn" what all we get, including respect.Something like if they offer us a very competetive remuneration then it is imperative on them to "extract" an equivalent amount of work from us. This is what is called typically clerical attitude - if I pay one rupee I MUST get an equivalent payback i.e to extract every single drop of juice from every single rupee I pay. A simple example is that when the company orders new PC'c the Boss gets a new one and the assistant gets the Boss's old computer. This is the "We-will-make-you-pay-for-everything-you-get" attitude. Rather than thinking about the improvement in the organisation's efficiency by the new PC's everyone will get they have some other criteria of thinking.
And then there is : Because the systems in place presently are working, these are THE BEST systems. Whatever is going on presently is justified just because it is there. Something like : Just because I am alive, that means that I am living in the best possible way! That there are many ways of doing the same thing and that a more efficient sytem of doing the same thing could be used, never crosses these people's minds.
And last but not the least, the King of all tendencies: These people just LOVE complaining. Notice that "love" is in capital. In all matters from trivial to critical they prefer to keep complaining rather than getting up and doing something about it!
Majority of these traits can be directly traced back to the British 'Indian' education system. Let me elaborate in my next blog.
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