Being the Right People

Being a right-brained person, I don’t understand the technicality behind elections much – the alignment between the various parties, seat sharing and all that. However, if there is one prominent thing that happens near election time, it is the way the media analyses every candidate for his strengths and drawbacks, with respect to the expectations the electorate has from him and concludes what the elected person will have to accomplish once he comes to power.

While the issues are specific to the regions or the communities, Namma Bengaluru people are often caught looking forward to the new leader to provide a clean city with a well disciplined traffic (read vehicles and roads) and lower cost of living, foremost of all.

It is not wrong to do that. However, I believe we are not so powerless that we cannot do anything at all without their help. We can help ourselves in many ways.  

Before we ask for a clean city, let us remember the ‘prevention is better than cure’ mantra. We should adopt cleanliness as our motto for all times. We need to segregate waste, composting the green either individually or collectively and getting the dry waste to the recycling centres, use water responsibly, and treat waste water and reuse it appropriately. We are fortunate to have several citizens’ groups – zero waste and composting, to name a few – who are doing environment-friendly things; we need to follow their good practices, tweaking them to suit our circumstances, and do our bit towards a cleaner city.

While it is easy to complain whenever we get stuck in traffic jams, we need to reflect on our behavior and observe traffic rules at all times. Many want safe roads, but given a choice don’t think twice before flouting lane discipline; some two wheeler riders even go on the footpath forgetting it is for the feet not for the tyres. No one wants accidents but not many refrain from driving after drinking, risking not only their life but that of unsuspecting innocent others on and off the roads. Road rage is on the rise, with patience on the road being a rare commodity. Therefore it is essential to get a good control over one’s mind before taking to the wheel, considering driving as only the means to get from one place to another not to flaunt one’s prowess on the vehicle one possesses.

A lot of people crib about rising prices despite earning well. I wonder why they don’t grow their own food to whatever extent possible. Then they would be sure of consuming food free from pesticides, the physical activity would add to healthier bodies and the back to soil connection is a wonderful experience too. Children learn that food comes from a plant not from the refrigerator. The home made compost can go to the garden and make the soil richer.  

The bottom line here is, why wait for the right candidate to do us good? Let us be good people ourselves.

- Published in LinkedIn on 3rd January 2019