How we think

I met up with a school friend over lunch. We studied in a village school till 12th and moved on to pursue medicine and engineering. He is doing exceedingly well as a doctor and is empanelled on physicians association of India. He travels to give lectures in places like Boston and cardiff.

While discussing various things, we started talking about his dream of migrating to a developed country, US or UK to be specific. He shared with me that he is happy that he did not pursue that dream and stayed back in India, " the society there does not understand moral values and parenting, I saw pregnant teens staying up in the bars late night and were drunk so much that I am not sure they were aware of their surroundings", lamented my friend. " the economies of these countries are in serious trouble and will need a major overhaul, I like India a lot, I know there is a lot of corruption but thats good in a way, the work happens". I was patiently listening to him but lost him with the last comment, "So you think its good that we have corruption?" I asked him in total disbelief. " Yes, its a good system to reward efficiency", explained my friend.

I dropped him at his place and started for Pune but the question kept haunting me, such an educated guy with good upbringing can think that corruption is a good thing. For a moment I thought, he does not understand what he is saying but then the next thought told me something else, he is so much in sync with his thinking that he does not see anything wrong in paying for the extra service that demand extra effort - be it breaking the law or being at the mercy of a greedy babu. And then I realised, this thinking is a bigger problem we face than the people who take the bribes. Its the same with someone who is driving on the wrong side of the road, jumping a signal or carrying 3 people on a two wheeler.