Mr Raghavendra Puthraya fwded us a thought-provoking e-mail, the content of which is purported to have been authored by no less a person than the President, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. Accompanying note asks the e-mail recipient to forward the mail to friends, instead of feeding them with jokes and junk mail. I don’t suppose the President would have put it quite that way. Anyway, the substance of the longish e-mail is worth sharing, in five takes.
Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - yours. Give him a face – yours. You walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. You are as proud of their Underground links as they are. You pay $5 (approx. Rs. 60) to drive through Orchad Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. You come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity... In Singapore, you do not say anything, do you?
You would not dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.
You would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah.
You would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs.650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else.'
You would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.'
Why don't you spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo?
Why don't you use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston???
We are still talking of the same you. You who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?
