Uncivil society: A wink and a nod for an easy life

A friend met our city's reality with a thud. His car, a new one, went into a pothole one day and out went the wheel alignment while a big dent marred the undercarriage. But the experience of having his car repaired had his usually sunny spirit go thud even harder.

Since it was a new car, he went to the dealer's workshop. A polite young man said, “Not today, sir” with unwavering persistence for three days before reluctantly saying, “Okay, bring it in.” My friend is a corporate executive but not the hard-hearted, pesticide-mixing kind you would find in films and television. He is a fine artist and given to mushy feelings. He thought the lad at the dealer's workshop had been extremely accommodative by making him run around for only three days. Tolerance for the well-meaning is a value my friend has in gobs.

Unfortunately, he is also a naïve kind of bloke. So, when the lad brought out a couple of blank forms for him to sign before the car could be taken in, my friend wanted to know what he was being asked to sign. It turned out he would have to sign one blank form — without an amount being put in yet to show the cost of repair —for the insurance company; and another blank form to say that he as a customer had been satisfied with the job done on the car. Otherwise, the polite lad was    afraid the repair would take a month.

"But I haven't had any repair done," my friend wailed. "How can I say I am satisfied? And how would I know how much you would put in that insurance form to cover the cost of repair? You could put any old amount and claim it from the insurance company."

The young man shrugged, with a sad smile. My friend shrugged too, with a hand reaching for the pen in his shirt pocket. The car is now back with him, fully repaired in a day.

He told me the story with a touch of melancholic dejection at the state of human affairs in Mumbai and perhaps everywhere in India. I told him the only way out, alas, for people like him was to steer clear of potholes. And, to avoid visiting car garages.

“Arrey, bhai,” exclaimed a bunch of buddies when I told them the story. "Don't you know this is common practice nowadays? C'mon, man, that's how life is if you have to live it without worrying at every stage whether you are doing the right thing."

Doing the right thing, that's an idiotic maxim a few of us live by when we can. At least, like my friend, we try. The trouble is, it's often impossible in our society, because too many of our fellow citizens couldn't be less bothered. As long as their work gets done, they are happy, even if it means cutting corners, winking here and nodding there to get past the rule of law. With accountability increasingly difficult to enforce — what with a creaky legal system in which 29 million cases are waiting to be heard by a woefully inadequate number of courts — you have to be savvy, and thus willing to let go of high principles, or naïve and willing to live in high rectitude on top of a socially desolate hill.

Many would argue that there are other checks and balances in a democratic society, not just courts of law. Indeed, there are. In several advanced societies they have systems in operation which give aggrieved customers an opportunity to have complaints about sharp business practices followed up with rigour and often redressed. In the United States, for instance, they have an organisation called the Better Business Bureau which lists erring companies on the basis of swiftly investigated complaints. A listing like that can rattle the rigor mortis out of a company unless it takes prompt steps to counter the charge and have its name de-listed. But no such efficient check on business malpractice works in our country. Yes, there are a few official bodies you can complain to about being conned by a business or services outlet but you might have better luck calling your mother.

Of course, there is the press, supposedly teeming with watchdogs guarding your interests and principles. Well, yes. But, I am prepared to admit, not always. Too many hacks take freebies, too many freeloaders among us at restaurants and hotels, too many insider traders in the financial journals, too many rotten apples make it difficult for the rest who try to remain true to our professional ethics. Sad, but  disturbingly true.

Email: gautam@dnaindia.net