After a long gap of almost 4 months I am writing on this blog, the reason is very dramatic. Today I was shopping for grocery at one of the supermarket in my area. I saw the store in charge holding a 10-12 year boy, asking repeatedly “where have you kept other chocolates?” at first I didn’t understand whats going on. The boy seems to belong from a well to do family and looked scared. He then cried to his father, who was standing at the counter, getting his shopping billed. The in-charge told boy’s father that his son was trying to shoplift some chocolates, and when he caught him, he ran from him and hid them somewhere. The first reaction from the father was of disbelief, but then he asked his boy, has he done what is being told. The boy mumbled something, but it was very clear that he was at fault. I was expecting a slap on his face from his father, but I guess I don’t know today’s parents that well. The man immediately told the store in-charge to bring the chocolates so that he can pay for them, but he was not at all apologetic of his son’s behavior. The in-charge said that, its not a matter of paying, but about the illegal act done by the child. The man changed his approach immediately, he started shouting about his child being innocent as they have not left the store and were about to pay for the chocolates, also he mentioned his position, head of department or something for a very well reputed firm, which I would not name here for obvious reasons. After a lot of shouting, blaming and putting everything on store in-charge’s head, it all ended by the couple walking off with their child out of the store, but they left something behind, a thought in my mind, will we ever be able to get out of the hole known as corruption?
Well, at this point you can question my question, you will even think that I am making too much out of a very small incident which happens almost everywhere in the world, I agree to this but not completely. Yes, shoplifting is very common across the world, people steal from supermarkets, not only the poor or needy but the most wealthy ones too (Winona Ryder for example). But, in this case what left me surprised and wondering was the behavior of father once he came to know that his son is at fault. Instead of making him realize that he has done something wrong, he started finding ways to justify his actions. We can assume that most of the people in this situation will try to save themselves and their child from the shame and harassment, nothing wrong in that, but what about teaching a lesson to the child, that it is not right to do what he just did. We can just assume that the child would have been told not to repeat this act in future, may have been thrashed by the father at home, but just think for a minute here about the message he got from his father’s behavior in the supermarket.
His father made a few things very clear for him, one, he can do whatever wrong and he will always save him by putting the weight of his position and manly voice (I could hear the guy clearly over 4 rows of grocery).Two, it is fine to steal and then pay for it (in terms of money) in case of getting caught, if the person doesn’t accept money then prove that it was his fault that he was trying to catch you. Imagine the same child growing up to become a very important member of our society, an engineer, doctor, politician etc. With these morals, what can you expect from him, that he will be doing his duty honestly and sincerely?
The problem we have here is not that we are a nation of corrupt people, but that we are making our children learn these corrupt ways by demonstrating our methods in day to day life. I can say with confidence, that if the man would have asked the child to apologize to the store in-charge in front of everyone and would have accepted his child’s mistake, it would have made a very different impression on child’s mind. But, as the father’s ego and reputation in society was at stake, he made sure to prove that his child is not at fault. I remembered Mahabharata where Dhrutrashtra kept on justifying his son Duryodahana’s actions and wrongdoings, kept fulfilling his desires using his position as the king of state, leading to the war and destruction of himself and his family. You can say that I am overreacting here based on a one of incident, but if these are actually the ways of society today then history may repeat itself.
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2 comments:
good point mayank, the rich class think by leveraging power and money you can shout down the less privileged class and define own moralities n rules.
the best thing the father could have done is apologize to the store keeper,said the bache ki galti and paid for the chocolates and secondly given the child a stern warning.
but then by masking the mistakes you are creating the manu sharma of tommorrow, the goa minster's son who raped a tourist and son of MLA who opened fire in a cafe in broad day light. thats sad !!
criminals for tomm with no regard for law n spirit
You can find such incidents happening around quit often, this clearly indicates where we are going as you have rightly pointed out. Moral values of the society are going down as many immoral things like corruption, lying, sychophancy of boss, etc have become part and parcel of day to day life of almost everybody.
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