Lessons picked up along the way and still realising...

The last few evenings, two to be specific, I realised an important lesson. That I knew so much and could spread so much that I know but don't just for the sheer reason of being lazy.

A friend who just returned from the US of A, after three brief months, had so much to tell me and not any part was what is ususally heard. Honesty, sheer dedication and an inherent dislike to flouting rules whether traffic or those of plain courtsey were just some the basics

She worked in a smallish town in Arizona and was plesantly surprised to find their cars with no horns. "You just don't have in the car and can actually drive without the horn," she said. Of course all this was being said while she touted a horn to avoid a cyclist, a rickshaw and a pedestrian from getting underfoot on the heavily dug up and populated road of JVLR.

"People follow rules there and would think twice before even jaywalking. Even Indians there think three times before they break rules," she emphasied.

She was neatly surprised to see unmanned stores with lovely goods. "You picked what you wanted and left the money," she completed. Of course, in India, that shop would get looted in one day was left unsaid.

They work hard and devote as much attention to their hobbies. Days begin early, work finishes quickly and everyone makes good use of their evenings. Hobbies, new courses, sports are just some of the things they would do. Her words.

Its not their ease of lifestyle that is an attraction but perhaps their simplicity, I gathered. They may have more of a per capita income than their Indian counterparts but surely they are plagued by similar mundane day to day problems but just that they, perhaps, do not get as bogged down as we readily would. My words.

So why is it that we Indians would leave our country and be neat, clean, honest and organised in other places and not carry those habits back home? Why does a motorist honk bang in the middle of a traffic jam seeing fully well that there is no place up ahead? Why is it inherently easy to believe that the person is ready to cheat you than to help you? Why are rules constantly bent - starting from spitting on the road to pocketing a few crores while doing a government contract? Will corruption get rooted out on a macro scale if we, as individuals, don't stop bribing the local havaldar?

This is not about who is better and why. It is about what is better and how to adopt it.