The Flip Side of Getting Back to Normal

Bombay has been praised in the past for its quick return to normality after being the victim of blasts and natural calamities. Is this really a great characteristic we think to ourselves? Should we really be getting back to "life as normal" after these calamities which are really due to our own failure. Failure to build good systems, civic infrastructure, failure to build good governance, failure to put a decent judiciary in place? Shouldn't we be spending some time doing something about all this?

Perhaps we are too busy surviving to care. From the harassed commuter who struggles through a soul-numbing commute for 6 hours of her life everyday to the office executive who struggles to protect her job from the ever growing competition from younger and keener hands. We have no time  to fix the system. Or we are resigned to our fate. Either way this "resilience" appears to be a bit of a cop-out indicative of a callous state of mind.

We have this debate going on in amongst colleagues whether it is our job to be looking at "societal" problems or getting on with our job to be good teachers and technologists. But can't we also argue that by being amongst the privileged few of society, that it is our job to use our voices and our minds to create a better reality for the community that sustains us? 

The bottom line is what Mahatma Gandhi once said - "be the change that you wish to see!" This says it all. Lead by example. The responsibility for the lives we wish to lead are simply contained in this powerful, terribly empowering statement. The choice is ours whether to coninue to be victims of "life" or to guide our present to a better future. Be the change you wish to see...