The green light goes ON and I let my feet go off the clutch and step on to the accelerator to make my way pass one of the 8 lights I come across while going to office. Of course - the vehicles which were suppose to stop at the same instant when I had started moving do not care to stop and they all continue to move as if they never saw their light going amber and then red. I move ahead and at the sight my car and all the vehicles following me, moving on, the vehicles on the other side start slowing down and finally stop... still you see some shameless two wheelers or auto rickshaws dodge their way cross the red light. This happens everyday at every light I pass and gets on to my nerves.. several times I felt like getting down my car and yelling at them.. but.. haven't done it so far. Reminds me of the "Dombivali Fast" and sets me thinking as to how long and far do we keep tolerating the culture of violating traffic rules.. Its never ending...
This is me at one end of the spectrum and let me see myself on the other end..
Since my childhood days have been dropping (then my mom use to call it and now my wife calls it "throwing") my wet towel either on the bed or the sofa. From the reactions I have been seeing after I get caught "throwing"... I am sure they must be getting the same agony as I get when I see someone jumping the light.. But then they to tolerate and with grudges though pick it up and put it out for drying or into the heap of clothes to be washed.
Both these instances mark tolerance of people to indiscipline. We see ourselves on either end of the spectrum - quite often on one and less often on the other depending on how disciplined and good citizens we are. Quite often we tolerate others and are tolerated by others and at times we get beaten/beat others for their mistakes/wrong doings.
We find this happening at workplace - we tolerate unresponsivenesses of people, we tolerate lack of participation from people, we tolerate bureaucracy, we tolerate sloppy work, we tolerate ambiguity, we tolerate delays and many more things.. depending on how expressive one is, the vice is either tolerated or bashed.
It is not that we tolerate all the time.. one fights / rebels against these irregularities/deficiencies at times with varying degrees and I do that very often.. At times it offends people at times it sets spanner in the wheels and at times its treated as feedback and we see people acting on it for a change. I have found many like minded people having less or more tolerance to the system than me and making it a point to express their anguish/feedback. At times it is sarcastic and destructive with no intent to give the other person a chance to change/improve and at times it is constructive but not enough push to see the receiver change and the third category is the people who give the constructive feedback or bashing - whatever you call and see the issues getting fixed over a period of time through constant follow-ups.. a rare Gandhian category..
There is another category of people we see in the system..
Sometimes, some people in the system, having stayed in the system for long start tolerating things - they get immune to the anomalies/inefficiencies.. They not only get immune but easily dodge the system and find the least resistance path to get across - this improves the effectiveness of the individual but weakens the system. The new people who get into the system do not make their way through such system with ease.
I am not sure if all this makes sense to the readers and probably when I read this next time, going to edit it to make more sense out of it.
cheers for now, mahesh
