Have often wondered what could be the root cause of the evil of Corruption? The answer that often came to my mind relates to someone’s work getting stuck and then the person tries to get work done by hook or crook and when even that doesn’t work, they try to pay off the obstacle..buy convenience.
But yesterday, my whole thought process was literally taken up for a ride by what I saw in a movie “Bombay Talkies”. I was astonished at the way it changed my whole set of thoughts. In the scene that I am referring, this small kid was trying to tell her father to pay up for her School Tour that would involve visit to historical locations et al. The father tried to evade the demand in various ways, but what he finally did made me feel sad about the state of affairs. The father gets a gift for his daughter stating “this is for you as you would not be going to the History tour with your class.” Literally he was trying to pay off her missing the important tour. He offered her a Bribe?
Suddenly the whole fact on how the roots of corruption get so deep in our culture and society seem to have getting clear to me. Though I had seen this “Paying off for not being able to meet child’s demand”, but had never thought in the directions that it can be one of those critical root causes of prevailing corruption practices.
I would rather prefer being straight forward to the child and tell him / her that I can’t fulfill a request as I am not equipped to do so. It would be better for handling reasonable / unreasonable demands as slowly they would understand something that can be addressed and something they need to live with. But paying off for one’s ability is directly or indirectly equivalent to offering a Bribe….
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