Education- whats its worth really?

The next time you are travelling in an auto and find that the driver is only driving through the middle of the road, although the left /right lane is relatively free, you may assume that the auto is an illegal one without license and paperwork… cause cars in the middle of the road are more difficult to catch...or so says Rahul Bhai- an auto driver I met recently in Aurangabad.

I am appalling with names, so obviously I can’t remember his surname, but it was pretty impressive and a long Marathi one. He was dressed in a starched white shirt, had a mustache which will make our Sanju Baba cringe and was surprisingly well spoken. Hanging onto the front seat of the auto, where he was kind enough to make around 4 inch of space for me to park my butt, I took an instant liking for him. Usually autowallas are a pain...they take a solemn oath at the start of their professional life to harass customers and over charge them…but this one was jovial, smiled and seemed to take pride in his driving skills.

I guess I was easily recognizable as an alien in the streets of Aurangabad, as I spoke terrible Marathi, had no clue  how I needed to reach the bus stand and looked a bit lost at 8pm at night  (late by their standards, especially as I was in the outskirts of the city). So trying to be the good guide he started inquiring where I was from and what I do etc etc… once he heard I was from Kolkata, his affliction for me grew by leaps and bounds … further conversations revealing that he is a true blue fan of our Bangla’s pride…our DADA…our very own Sourav Ganguly….

So a healthy conversation ensued and I had a brief glimpse of his life saga which unfolded quite a few interesting facts… he was a qualified CA, had worked in a professional “Marwadi” CA firm for 3 years before deciding that all that sucks… he also showed off his skills at colloquial language having quite a few interesting abuses to add when he mentioned ‘Marwadi’ (no offence meant to anyone) saying he was underpaid, had to put in extra hours and the boss was more a leech than a boss… sounds familiar? Anyone?

So his next career move was an inspired decision- to move to  the city of dreams- Mumbai, to find a dream  job… he found one…as an auto driver. The money was better than his CA stint… he was his own boss and he could always get more money by extorting the customers… things went well for around 2 years, till about the time when all the Mumbai policemen learned he hadn’t had a license, his auto was illegal and decided to aid his illegal activity by dipping their beak into it… those a$$***s extorted the extortionist so much that bechara ran away from Mumbai…to Pune… 

His money extorting, auto-driving career again blossomed in Pune for a brief stint of around 1 yr…till the time when the Pune police smelled the rat which had escaped the Mumbai gutters… So fed up at not getting a descent income and continuous bribing of the officials for allowing him to continue his saintly profession he returned to his homeland…Aurangabad.

He says he now manages to earn handsome money… *he even tchtched at my pay package*, still continues to drive an illegal auto but pays less bribe. He vows that Aurangabad police are less greedy in comparison…*kudos to u all u Aurangabad cops Sir*… and  considering that he has learnt the tricks of escaping the cops from the dream city…these local ones in Aurangabad can do no harm to him… they are too slow…

So interestingly, while my journey of 5 kms and 30mins (and you think traffic is a problem only in Mumbai and Bangalore?) and 15 rupees came to an end…I felt that there was an important lesson to learn from this guy’s life… 

Does education really have any value? A CA qualified guy as an auto-driver…makes good press right? I guess this trend starts at our premier institutes called the IITs… where typically a mechanical engg works for a bank or a software firm… and continues all the way down to lowly Micobio graduates like me who worked in fields which had no relation to his education as such…. And we still continue to say that education is important…

And what about bribe? I don’t even want to get into that field… how is an auto driver allowed to run an illegal auto in Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad for 7 years without ever being caught? Were there no honest policemen in the ranks? Or is it a coincidence that Rahul has evaded the honest ones so successfully…

Oh and BTW…. to all you feminists… Rahul added that the women policemen are the tough ones… they almost never ask for a bribe… I guess we need more women policemen…and if you can import some from Rajasthan (*they have the prettiest women policemen in India*) then maybe the job of a cop will be more attractive and honest…amen to that….

PS: this is a true incidence…not dramatized…. And Rahul’s isn’t the real name of the autowallah…

Snake scare

Last night, after a hectic day in the field, me and Prabhat (my roommate and fellow batch mate) had gone to the nearby Dhaba for a cup of tea… it was around 7in the evening and it was just getting dark…. when I say dark…it’s in the rural context, where its difficult for you to see your own hands at night- no matter how fair you are (not being racist)….

I was on the phone with someone and semi-blind as I am, did not realize that there was this huge crowd of around 15-20 people who had gathered on the highway (I live right on the NH50) till I bumped into one of the local lads… now I am clueless what his name is, though I have played/attempted to play cricket with him several times… seeing me, he started saying something in a very animated manner, in express Marathi, excitement evoking with every syllable…. As usual my abysmal language skills came to haunt me just about then; and I started screaming back “Hindi”..Hindi”, all curious as to why such a large crowd has gathered and wanting to be part of the fun(?)… hearing my anguish and understanding that I want “Hindi”…another guy started screaming “Aajgaar”…”Aajgaar”… while I was trying to be busy figuring out what I need to make out of that, one of the old neighbors in my village started giving me a demo on what he meant…

Trust me, watching Ranchho give demo with Pudine ki chutney is fun…but when your 65-70 year old neighbor “Kaka” tries to do an impromptu striptease, showing off his thighs under his dhoti and explaining that the “aajgaar” was as thick as that looks a bit gross...(“a bit” actually is the understatement of the year); its revolting to say the least… *sighs*

Anyways, enthused by Kaka’s demo, quite a few of the youth in the crowd started giving me demos of the “Aajgar’s” thickness- some showing off his muscles, some his  neck, some his hips….we Indians seem really fond of demos…. Possibly Aamir Khan in 3 Idiots is to be blamed for that…. …problem was, all this while I remained clueless what an Aajgar really was, till I remembered that a python is called “Aajgaar” in Bengali and seemed like even Marathi uses the same word. When I asked them, they confirmed yes it was a snake.

Another strange observation I made was, different people in the crowd seemed to have noticed different portions of the snake’s body. People, all animated and all excited, started discussing on top of their voice the size of the whiskers on the snakes mouth (?), whether it was a baby snake or not, how dark the circular rings on its body were etc etc… I realized that everyone who had appeared in the scene much after I had arrived had a clearer picture of how big the snake was, what it weighted, its color and the length of its whiskers and where it stays….Hmmm… Extremely knowledgeable herpetologist…

By this time, the crowd had thickened and more people had joined in… slowly the picture evolved that a python was found to be slithering on the National Highway, when a truck driver spotting the snake (which is known for its slow movement), caught the snake and threw it into the ditch beside the Highway to ensure that cars don’t run over it.  The crowd was trying to find the snake from the ditch…

On hearing this, my first reaction was excitement- I will finally get to see a python alive and in the wild…the second immediate thought was- are these people gathered to kill it? I started inquiring “why are they trying to find it?”… someone told me coz they want to save it and hand it over to forest Dept…. Can you believe the relief?

Python is one of the endangered species of snakes in India… and the only ones I have ever seen are in captivity. Somehow when I realized that the villagers were trying to protect the snake, it felt really awesome…here every day we see these people barred within the boundaries of caste, creed and what not other nonsense…and now the same villagers from all sections and age were trying to unite together to save a snake which they hadn’t even seen…

Search Lights, mobile torches, even Bike Head lights joined the attempt to find the snake. But, after 45-50mins of searching in the darkness, many a failed sightings and people scaring each other off deliberately, we returned home with no luck of capturing and saving the wild python.

However, more importantly, I learned an important lesson about human behavior that night…people might struggle to co-exist, but if they find a cause, they usually stand united…even if the cause may bring peril to them, like finding a snake which is known to be one of the most dangerous ones around…

PS: this is a true incident, this post is as true as it can be and i haven't dramatized anything, the site where this happened is >20 feet from my room..

In Search of excellence:

Picture this:

1.       A Tata Sumo or Force local jeep in a ramshackle about-to-breakdown-state runs along the worst possible roads in rural Maharashtra, carrying a minimum of 19-21 passengers…(against the usual carrying capacity of 8 people including driver)… People are content and do not complain- that’s the way they are used to travel- they are all smiles- atlast they have got a vehicle to travel in…

2.       Schools have a student enrollment percentage of almost 90%... some of the more “prosperous” farmers proudly claim that their ‘son’ studies in the local English medium school. One glance at their school copies, their English has been orphaned and mathematics defy the logic which it is known for… people are content and happy- at least their son is learning to speak “English”… no one knows or cares that they aren’t learning English which makes sense…

3.       You need to travel to Pune-130kms via road- National Highway 50…decent roads… you would expect to reach in 2-2.5 hours in the bus services…. The travel time as per official schedule is 4.5 hrs and you can’t and shouldn’t expect any better… People are happy- at least the road is decent and you get a bus…

4.       You go out to eat some food in the Dhaba/Hotels in the nearby Tier 3 city/villages… they charge you an exorbitant amount; putting to shame some of the eateries in metro cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai or Delhi/Kolkata… the food quality is crap, hygiene (what is that now?) is conspicuous in its absence and taste all but gives  you a heartache… no one is complaining… quality of food here is like this only…as long as you get food…

5.       You wish to buy something and travel to the local markets (usually 15away-20kms away)..all you get is cheap quality China maal or if Indian, some of the shoddiest products at not-so-cheap prices..no one cares…you atleast get electronic items or other items for personal usage….

Knowing me…this list can be endless… but it’s a bit late  at night now and I don’t wanna spoil my mood anymore… Just a few quick questions which I am trying to find an answer to….

1)      Why do these people not expect any better?

2)      Do poor people mean you give them any shit (pardon me) and they take it?

3)      Why is it that there is no say from their side on anything? I know you would tell me their voices are suppressed and all that …not all of it is true..When you want to be heard, you always find a way…

4)      Why are we so like this?

5)      When will we be having a mindset which accepts nothing but excellence?

6)      When will we start demanding quality as a right and not a favor someone does to us?

I am sorry; I always had issues with the words mediocre and average. Possibly because I was always told by my mom that I was an average student…  or possibly because I never learnt or taught anyone to use these words in my workplace… I don’t want us to be so adjusting…I don’t want us to be less greedy…I want us to demand more…. to only be satisfied once you get what you desire… nothing less…

Somehow, I don’t believe that as a nation we can be as crappy as this and still be proud of our ourselves*… for once…let’s first try and say we can set ourselves much better standards…then let’s talk about being a world super power… and in the process, if we end up not being a super power but a country known for its excellence in whatever it does…I guess I would still be happy with it….

*I am extremely proud to be an Indian…just don’t have much faith in the way we run things here these days… am not sure our founding fathers who wrote the constitution envisaged India the way it is today… a mass raped, ravaged, torn apart country fighting for everything and some bit of dignity…