Back To Basics

There used to be a time when things used to run smoothly in this country, and people used to have values which our former rulers had instilled within us. The rulers departed, and gradually but surely, even the values they had taught us to respect faded away. Nobody talks about punctuality these days, for instance. The younger brother of the Maharaja of Cooch Behar once arrived at the railway station to catch a train. In those days, the Imperial Railways used to ply long distance trains between Kolkata and what is now known as Assam. The Maharaja's brother looked at his watch when the train pulled into the station, and saw that the train was late by 10 minutes. He immediately took his watch off his wrist and threw it onto the tracks. Such was the confidence that people had in the Imperial Railways. Today, when almost everything is in a downward spiral, punctuality isn't the first thing on people's mind. I have a feeling it hardly features on people's minds anymore.

Take quality of service for example. When I was a kid, my father used to take me to a certain tailor shop, where we used to get our clothes stitched. The tailor, you will be surprised to know, never used to take my measurements (or those of my father). He used to look at me with a quick glance, and used to give my father a delivery date. In my 14 years of taking services from the tailor, his clothes have never been a misfit. The other day, my wife took me shopping and I had to wait in a long queue outside the trial room in a well-known retail store. I didn't mind, and waited patiently, and tried the trousers which I had asked to be altered in length. Unfortunately, after around 20 minutes of waiting, I found that the trouser was too short. To cut a long story short, after three more such alterations, almost two and half hours of waiting and 350 bucks spent on an unnecessary pizza, I finally gave up. I still wear those trousers to work, and am extremely displeased when people look at my exposed socks.

You buy a Digital TV subscription, and the sales team will speak to you like the entire planet has suddenly been deprived of oxygen due to some apocalyptic catastrophe and you are the biggest hoarder of the precious gas. Once you make the payment and they have said "Have a nice day", the fun starts. I sometimes take notes on the difference of behavior between the sales team and the service team of a provider, and refer to them during my lonely moments, for entertainment.

I'm not saying things haven't improved in certain areas. Of course they have - I'm not blind, or bitter. But I wouldn't care less for people who came and told me that we live in wonderful times. It's time they opened their eyes and confronted reality, and better still, tried and changed it.