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Be the change..

There are days when I feel like shaking up few people, for all the lectures they give. And the worst part as my artist friend tells me, that its me who seems to be jinxed to land up meeting such kinds all the time..

These kinds are everywhere. You find them at signals, cribbing about the traffic, if they are Management school pass outs, then you would find them discussing how the government should develop 'strategies' for managing rules, and how they should sit with countries like Singapore or USA and 'share best practices', and these will be the very fine gentlemen who would not think twice before jumping a signal, standing on the zebra line, standing on the extreme left, and take a right. So, basically all that gyaan was for show off and secondly for others.

In the domestic scenario, you see a child shouting at his parents, and the parents asking him to be polite, teaching the child not to shout at elders, and the next minute, you would find the lady of the house shouting at her maid and calling her names in front of the same child who was given a lesson on values. Is the maid not older than the child? You mean to say, you can be rude because you are an adult? And the child gets to be rude when he grows up?

Looking outside the window of your plush sedan, you cringe at the sight of garbage ridden streets, the municipality of the city is blamed for its shoddy work and inefficiency in keeping the city clean. After two crossings, you tell your child to throw the empty chips packet out of the window, as the 'car' would get dirty.

In a society meeting, your voice is at the top pitch while insisting on visitor entries, when the rule is finally incorporated, the person who insisted is the first to tell the security to let his guest in, without a visitor entry.

You utter abuses, when you read about rapes, molestation's, abuse.. And you scream at your wife for the tea turning cold.

You stand outside, and talk nineteen to a dozen, about women's liberation, equality of genders, the minute you are inside your house, you ask your daughter to take the plate of your son also, and leave it in the sink. Equality??

As a parent, you tell the teacher to be strict if the child misbehaves in the class, and when the rude, unruly child comes back and complains that he got a scolding or punishment, you abuse the teacher in front of the child, in a country where the name of the 'guru' is taken before the name of GOD.

In the English language, there is an old adage, "Charity begins at home". Even today, many don't understand its true meaning.

Life begins at home. Values start at home, cleanliness begins at your doorstep.

Give suggestions to government later, first you follow the rules, stop at the signal when it's red. Don't honk unnecessarily, if the person could move, he would, he is not having fun at the signal either. The zebra crossing is for pedestrians, don't block it, there is no medal being given for racing from a junction to another. Your family will start respecting you more, your discipline might rub off on your employees and colleagues.

You want to teach values to your child, start by practicing them yourself, children imitate, they follow, they don't listen so much as much as they watch. You treat your maid nicely, you want to pull her up for her bad work, point out the mistake without insulting. Watch the way your child imbibes manners.

You want a clean city, start carrying your garbage home, or wait till you find a dustbin.

Bring changes in the society later, first treat the women in your house with respect and love. They are more burdened with work than you can even imagine. Voice your opinion about equality later, first start by asking your boy to do his work on his own.

All this boils down to only one thing, "Be the change you want to see in the world". It's a very simple truth.




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