A Letter to Anna

(Originally written for IISER, Bhopal annual magazine Uday-2013)

Dear Anna,

                 

I am a teacher, a profession I had dreamt of pursuing, and I am presently staying in this beautiful city of Bhopal. The other day, all of a sudden, I planned to visit  my uncle in Nagpur. As you know, getting a train ticket nowadays requires more planning than any Indian marriage! My only option therefore was to try my luck at getting a tatkal (emergency) ticket. A travel agent at a nearby shopping mall does this job for a few extra hundred. He knows 'those people'! But, thanks to your effort in this regard, things are not the same as before! I vowed to fight it out as much as I can. It might be that I won't be able to walk until the last mile, but I had decided that I will walk long. You inspired me!

So, my own journey began with getting up at 6.30 in the morning and arriving at the Bhopal railway station on my newly bought moped! There was already a long confused queue to get a token. A young chap in front of me explained the procedures. Soon we realized that the token machine was not working, and after some 'Halla-bol' the railway officials decided to write the token numbers on the applications forms. Needless to say, the queue was filled with touts who repeatedly mentioned why it was impossible to get tatkal tickets without paying money to them! Ignoring them I stuck to my gun, along with the young chap. Even when we were told that every person would get only one token number, the touts in front of us got many forms marked. Honestly, I did not bother! I just wanted  my ticket so that I could visit my uncle. Finally I got my number - 227, but without any idea what it meant! I reminded myself 'First thing first', and waited patiently for my number to appear in the electronic display board. "Yes!" It was counter number 12 and hurriedly ran to the counter. I fumbled with the form and the lady at the counter was rude. Then she said, "Seven twenty six". I wondered and asked, "Do I have a ticket?" She casually replied, "Only if you pay the money before it is gone!" I screamed with overwhelming joy, and immediately embarrassed myself in front of all the people.

Honestly, paying those extra few hundred rupees to my travel agent to get a tatkal ticket could have been much easier, but as I said, things were not the same! Thanks to you again! But, why am I telling you this? 

No, I am not writing to tell you this familiar story, but to tell you why this story is not workable! In recent times, you and your associates had brought the issue  of corruption in the forefront, and argued strongly why an institution like Lokpal may help in curbing it. In my judgement, it will not! Your proposed Lokpal does not look at 'why' and 'how' corruption happens. Instead, it focuses only on 'who', as it tries to find and punish corrupt individuals or groups. I believe, given a chance, people are easily corruptible. It can be argued that on moral values we should not take or give bribes! I am sorry to say that some of the bad human qualities are in every human being's genes, and many of our moral uplifts are against those genes! But, we cannot let our country lose crores of rupees on the moral values of a minister, a bureaucrat, a clerk in the municipal office, or a common citizen like me. Policing, and subsequently punishing people also cannot fix the issue. If someone is honest, well and good, but if not, the system must be such that the chances of being corrupt  and making others corrupt get reduced to a satisfactory level. Today, I amy be ready to walk a few extra miles to buy my tatkal ticket, but tomorrow I may not be! Should I then be allowed to bribe? In many western countries, corruption in day-to-day life is mostly absent. They do not pay a bribe to get a driving license; neither do they pay a bribe to the police officials for address verifications. Do we have to believe that people in those countries are morally much superior to those in India? Therefore, the solutions lie in finding systematic changes where people do not get chances of being corrupt or making others corrupt. We must dive into the core of the issue!

What do I mean by systematic changes? When I was discussing this issue with my wife one Sturday morning,  she mentioned casually, "We need to book the cooking gas!" It took me few sec to do it over the mobile phone, while continuing the discussion. Now, take flash back to 10 years. First of all, getting a gas connection then was like winning a lottery. Secondly, we had to go to an office to book a gas and there was a good chance that the clerk would ask for Rs 10 to book it. Even today, the story is similar for most of the Government offices where there are 'human links', in this case, the clerk and any citizen, to get a public work done. Now, I do not pay that very important Rs 10 to book my gas, as the clerk no longer exists. The work now is being done by a machine, and thankfully that is not corruptible. Wherever a citizen need to encounter any official for public works, each step must be electronically registered with date and time! Your Citizen's Charter had made some wonderful suggestions along this line.

Now, take the example of tatkal tickets that I started with! Why is there so much corruption associated with these tickets? It is simply because the tickets are scarce! In anything is scare, everyone wants to have it, and even at the cost of corruptions.  Whenever there is clear mismatch between demand and supply, certain individuals in the society take advantage of it. Have we heard of corruption in airlines tickets sales? We pay more to some private companies, but government also gets tax proportionally. In a similar fashion, if we reform the railway services so that tickets are no longer coveted, those touts will no longer exist! We cannot  get rid of corruption by stationing the police officials during tatkal ticket selling, but by removing the possibility of tatkal ticket itself. Take another example of public food distributions systems (rationing) in India. A large amount of invested resources get channeled to the people who do not deserve it. The solution lies in looking into the issue of how it happens. Possibly, giving money directly to the underprivileged people, who can buy food grains from the open market, is a better options. On the other hand, large-scale corruption can also be easily handled with minute changes in the already existing systems, for example making the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) a constitutional authority as like the Election Commission or Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). We now understand how these last two pillars of Indian democracy are contributing to our nation building.     

BY the way, am I undermining moral values like honesty? Sincerely not! Honesty is one of the greatest human values, and we must strive for it. This is our core! Any systematic policy change that I was talking about has to come from some individual's absolute integrity and honesty. But, we cannot leave things on people's moral status; neither should we focus our solutions of corruption in punishing. Finally, take the example of students copying answers during the examination. I recently faced this issue at my institution. We may claim that the students should be ethical and they should not copy. I agree, and we must teach them about the scholarly ethics! But a simple solution, as one of my colleague suggested, is to to keep the sitting arrangements during the examinations such that the students cannot copy, even if they want to! I hope you ponder over my thoughts!

I will look forward for your reply. I wish your good health and hope to meet you one day!

Rituparno and I

Dear Rituparno-da,

I did not know you unless everyone started to talk about your films. I did not even know about Hirer Angti! One of my close friends Santanu used to watch one movie every week during my college days. But I had an understanding with him. The movies that I will watch with him had to be in Bengali. In mid-nineties, middle class bengali people started to be back at the movie theaters, so did we! And you indeed started to play some instrumental roles in this regard. So we watched Unishe April and Dohon. You received many national and international accolades. I liked those movies, but honestly, not that great! Still the fact that we used to go to the theatres for Bengali movies was somewhat exciting for me in those days.

Time passed by .. I saw few of your subsequent movies like Raincoat and Antarmahal. I liked those, but I skipped most of your other movies! Many of my friends and relatives kept me updated; they mostly commented that you are doing movies on unnecessarily complicated topics. I refrained myself from commenting. In the mean time, even though I did not follow your movies, I tried to follow your changes in personal life (as much as I could from the media), and sincerely read your interviews. You started to be vocal about the voices of 'those people'. In cinematic form, it culminated by doing movies like  Arekti Premer Golpo and Chitrangada.

By now, in many conversations and chat shows you started to put emphatic stress on how we should not worry, and thus making judgements, too much about a person's sexual behavior or preferences. You kept repeating how we better focus only on human values. I was learning. Over the years, you became the voice of  a large section of people you are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT). In last years, you practiced the lifestyle of LGBT communities, thus giving them a strong platform to speak out. Common people on the other hand started to bring the topic at the breakfast table to the adda at the tea-stall. It was no longer an issue that we always wanted to put under the carpet and pretend of not knowing it. This was particularly important  with the Indian mind-set. At the same time, the Indian court dismissed the criminal charges for homosexuality. It was a tremendous progress from the institutional side.  

But, why am I telling you all these? I also have a personal story to share with you! Few months back, I was staying at Bhopal for over an year. I was at home alone one morning as my wife had gone for the computer class. Someone knocked on the door. Once I opened the door, the person clapped his/her hands and asked for some money. Looking at him/her I had an wonderful feeling deep down my heart for the first time in my life. From my early childhood, I have seen people saying many wrong words about them. But, there I was standing in front him/her with a blissful feeling, something that we all look for! I took fifty rupees out of my wallet and in passing said "Khush rohiye(Be happy)". Both of us had the eye contact briefly, and I saw tears in the eyes! He/she knew, I knew, it was not the money! It was that moment, the eternal connection between two human being makes us moving. He/she put his/her hands on my head and blessed. Immediately, I bowed down to you with the offering of my regards. I had never seen you in person, but I felt very close to you at that moment. For me, it is you only who taught me to change my notion and perspective.

I was in my office at Kolkata when I got the news of your death. I was shocked, and during lunch, people talked about your movies, and I kept myself quiet remembering few little things. My sister called me in the evening with a shattering voice that she can not imagine herself not reading the First person anymore in Pratidin-Robbar. Next day morning, we all saw your calm face in the glass box. I was happy! You had put the candle on in many people's mind. Now it is our collective responsibilities to keep the candle burning brighter. All human being are the same and everyone deserves dignified treatment from the society irrespective of anyone's personal attachment to color, creed, religion etc, including sexual behavior or status.  

I do not know where are you resting! Wherever it is is, I am sure you are in peace. My sincere regards to you as a super-human-being. You are the real superman of this time. You looked further, far ahead of your time. 

Best,

Koushik