Everything has its positive and negative sides, thus say great men.
If my memory is correct (sorry sir, I am not a politician) it was the renowned US novelist - all of you must be knowing him - he is the author of the widely read, widely acclaimed renowned author of 'God Father' and a classic like 'Fortunate Pilgrim' an entirely different theme, 'Fools Die' and other works. Unlike 'God Father' a best-seller which set off ripples across the world, 'Fortunate Pilgrim' was not extensively read though according to me a great novel than the former. Caught? Yes he is none other than Mario Puzo. In one of his books, 'Godfather Papers and Other Confessions' a collection of essays, sorry if I am wrong, he has dwelt upon the the positive sides of bribery which benefit a number of middle-class employees in various departments.
Middle-class employees are not well-paid but their dreams and ambitions limitless - human nature ofcourse - in a variety of fields. If a writer's ambitions are fame and recognition in society, love of money comes secondary only, a scientist's dreams and ambitions develop 'Wings of Fire' (Courtsey A.P.J Abdul Kalam - scientist and our former President) and is always in pursuit of new discoveries, inventions, research 24X7, in short restless he is always. Fame and recognition only come second to him or her, a business man/woman nurses the dreams and ambitions of widening his/her business empire and for that matter industrial barons, media-barons, his/her ultimate goal being multiplying their profit further, invest further in business or another ventures, yearn for world-wide recognition and appreciation. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mukesh and Anil Ambanis, Lakshmi Mittal, Kiran Majumdar Shaw, Swati Piramal, Sunil Mittal, Asim Premji, N.R.Narayana Moorthy, number endless. Similarly writers of calibre or substance like V.S Naipaul, Amartya Sen, Paul Krugman, Margaret Atwood, Vikram Seth, Peter Carey, Amitva Ghosh, Hillary Mantel, Arundhati Roy, scientists like A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Venkata Raman Raghavan, Har Gobind Khorana...to name a few. Interests of some especially business and industrial barons and ofcourse a few writers also aim at multiplying bank balances, some for fame and recognition, some on eternal search for something eluding them, here I mean scientists and philosophers.
I began this piece about the middle-class employees and as pointed out by Mario Puzo when they find it quite difficult to pull on with the meagre salaries, remember, they have to attend to the educational needs of their children, dress, books, monthly payment of fees at schools or colleges to purchase computers, travel charges, payment of huge expenses as capitation fees and monthly fees incurred by their progenies, sky-high expenses for higher education of the brlliant children of some of the parents particularly those who wish to study abroad, then the needs of their spouses, dress and ornaments in particular and furthermore to avail loans from banks for purchasing cars and consumer durables like refirgerators, washing machines, Television sets - put it simply - a whole assortment of items, once in a while a merry go round in cars go to movies most of them though with guilty conscience are tempted, yes tempted, to accept currencies offered to them by the clients to get their needs speedily done. Accepting the bribery surreptiously first with shivering hands, in due course cooly and later demanding with an iota of repentance or remorse.
Thus the little little selfish motives develop into greed for money and this greediness makes them inhuman, ruthless and they stoop to the level of animals. Their pursuit for finding justifications for their inhuman deeds begin and finding crisis of conscience always gnawing or tormenting them, go on pilgrimage to temples/churches with families across the land, offerings in money, gold valuing lakhs or crores before the God pleading him to pardon them and praying for shower of blessings, dole out alms to the beggars who are lined along both sides of the way stretching their hands with beseeching eyes. Even after the offerings to the tune of lakhs and crores to Gods and generous doling out alms to the beggars and leppers, peace of mind eludes them. It is a mirage to them.
Even after all these offerings and confession to Gods, they find it not possible to backtrack from their inhuman ways back home and go on with the 'old business'.
Helplessness to greediness, greddiness to repentance, but no escape from the tentacles of the hydra called greediness here read corruption.
Money is like an enchantress and if these gentlemen get bewitched and fascinated towards it like magnet to iron it is not at all puzzling. Now the corruption has become our way of life, it is ruling the roost, eating to the vitals of our societal values once we cherished gone topsy-turvy, social, ethical and moral values, all got undermined.
Today I happened to read a news item in an English daily. It reports with the data in possession about the Central Cabinet Ministers with crores in their possession. Except three poor Ministers, Mamata Banerji, A.K.Antony and the one andonly A.Raja all commands crores. (poor A.Raja I really appreciate his tolerance and forbearance in the face of a mountain of allegations he had to encounter , allegations levelled against him for amassing more than hundreds of crores in the allocation of 2G Spectrum and 3G Spectrum. His total savings reportedly is only 88 lakh. All others have crores in their hands as per a data reportedly made available to S.C.Agarwal upon filing an application to RTI authorities who continues to be a whistle-blower and social activist.
It is celebration times for we people as none of them are millionaires or billionaires, thank God. Let's not pay heed to the rumour mills working round the clock.
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