Why Couldn't we!!

They say don’t be a sheep and follow the herd. Instead, take a road less travelled by and make a difference. We know these since ages and we have been reading and repeating all these like a parrot since time unknown. Are we really following it?? I don’t think so. We Indians have been accustomed to compromise with the situation and we are much more devoted to get our work done rather than trying to make a difference. We always try to adjust and even we teach our successors to do so. It is good to adjust but not always and that also to something that is wrong.

Recently, I have been to Bihar, my native state. We don’t have a well developed government road transportation system in Bihar. Mostly, the buses are run privately. It is okay with the private buses but not with their monopolies. We people have been facing the monopolies (in allotting seats, overcrowding, unnecessary stoppages etc.) of not the bus owners but the bus drivers, conductors, ticket bookers and others directly related to running the bus. People always abuse when they face their manmaani but they often forget as soon as they are out of it. This is just a small example of our negligence or say our attitude to adjust. This happened with me in Bihar but such things are very common in each and every part of our country, in almost all the spheres of life in our country. And even the more common thing is the people’s reaction and their attitude towards such things.

There are lots of things and situations that not a single person likes but neither of them tries to change. Though many of them are ready to change but don’t get a platform. May be ignorance is one of the reasons or may be priority because I feel if you have set your goals, you are bound to see not a way but ways to achieve that.

Ponder a bit:

Why we keep mum when the ruling party and the opposition keep fighting and blaming each other every now and then on different issues without giving high attention to the issue!!

Why we enjoy the speeches of our politicians which aims more at over shining their opponents than to the issues of development!!

Why we could not do anything against the news channels which are more of the entertainment channels and making a mockery of the word ‘news’?? Why we enjoy looking at their baseless news and all that unimportant stuffs when we have lots of things to forecast!!

Why the media keeps spreading negativity and many of us are kept away from many glorious things about us and most importantly a negative image is being portrayed to the world!!

Why a common man is still afraid of the police and other officials? Why they cannot understand that police and other government officials are public servants? They are there for the common people and are being paid from the commoner’s money.

Why even an educated person thinks of not taking a ticket in the buses, trains etc, instead he/she pays less to the conductor or travel ticketless resulting in corruption!!

We often keep talking about corruption but why we don’t understand that we are wholly responsible for this!! We show our successors, from their very childhood, very many small, big acts of corruption and they develop a mentality that this is correct, “इतना तो चलता है”. Now, when this child grows up he/ she practices the acts of corruption being taught to him/ her since childhood and also adds something from his/ her side leading to the never ending and ever increasing corruption.

The Uncommon Commoner

When the thought of making a blog on common man came to me, I decided my blog URL would be thecommonman.blogspot.com. But, unfortunately, this URL was not available. Then I tried for thec0mm0nman.blogspot.com and I got it. Then I googled for the common man and found many blog URLs like the0common0man.blogspot.com, thecman.blogspot.com, themancommon.blogspot.com etc. etc. The same moment I could notice a very important characteristic of the commoner, “Uniqueness”, the uniqueness in the thought, uniqueness in the approach. For the same problem, the commoners have very many solutions. Each of them has their own solutions. This also shows the diversity.

Lets take a very common example of boarding a train. We find several people on the platform. Some of them board the train normally through the gate of the boggies when the train stops, some board it running when the train is still slowing down, some of them are seen boarding from the other side, some reserve their seats putting handkerchiefs or towels or any such thing. They have jugaads for any of their jobs. Somehow the other they get their work done, if they are really willing.

Ask a question to a mass, “What is your favourite colour?” Though there are only seven colours, we will get more than seventy answers. This shows their creativity as well as the diversified taste.

Once I was in a meeting of about 30 people (we all belong to a team promoting anything Indian), a discussion was going on regarding conduction of an event. The answer was to be only in yes or no, but everybody supported their answer with a distinct logic and the result was that we had a lot of points in support and against it. The point to be noted is that together we provide for a better understanding of the problem and its solution. May be alone each one of us has enough of points to support our view, together we have a much strengthened vision.

Who says that a common man easily accepts its suppression, there are lots of thoughts originating each day in their minds. Somewhere ‘A Wednesday’ is made and at some other place a website or a blog or an article. Many discussions in the trains or in the verandah of houses, offices, schools and colleges are very much common. At least silent as well as loud curses are for sure. In fact, at times sudden outbreaks against anything wrong are also seen.

The commoners are highly diversified, very unique, jugaadu, pretty creative and also they are very much willing to change the situation. Nobody is very much silent but still nothing much significant is observed. Many could not get a start and many not a platform. Thoughts are many, many hands as well but not a start, not a direction. One more uncommon thing is that we very well know that union is strength and that together we can bring any change. But, still we are dispersed and not often we think of the union of such thoughts and hands. Even if we think, we only think, we never act. The time has come to unite the diversified efforts and talents.

Feel proud to be the part of the most uncommon group!!! But feeling alone won’t suffice...ACT!!!

Who is a Common Man?

Every now and then we encounter the word “Common Man”. But have we ever thought who a common man is. The dictionary says that Common refers to something having no special distinction or quality; widely known or commonly encountered; average or ordinary or usual. So, going by the dictionary the Common Man refers to a group of people having no special distinction and who are commonly encountered.

In reality, common man represents a very large mass. A common man is someone not in the authority at a certain place. Persons of almost all domains fall in this category at one time or the other. In spite of being quite different from each other, people are referred to as common man. The reason behind this is their thinking and also the behavior of the authoritarians for them. At most of the places a common man is harassed and suppressed by those in the authority. Also, a common man gives a room for exploitation. I don’t understand why people are afraid of the authority in getting their jobs done. They think that the authority has all the power and they never speak a word against the corrupt or unsound system even if they are very correct on their part. And the officials take the advantage of this and unnecessarily maltreat them. Moreover, a common man only blames the system and never thinks of correcting the system. They have become so accustomed of such a situation that perhaps nobody cares for a better condition. 

Ideally, a common man has lots of power. The common man has the power to shape a country. In fact, they can bring about any change in the system. After all, we, the common man, make the system. If at some point we belong to the common man category then at the other time we are a part of the authority. The thinking of a common man shows the thinking of the country and their actions decide the future of the country.

The common man has to understand the power of being common, the strength of the union, the crowd. They are millions in number against the feeble number of the so-called officials. It’s a wakeup call for the most powerful yet dormant section of the society!!