Get up and act!

Every day while on my way to work, I used to get stuck in a messy traffic block caused by an open man hole. The open man hole was a huge one and cars had to negotiate its way through causing the block. Like everyone else I too used to wait in the long snarl, wasting time, petrol and above all spoiling your mood.

After a week or two of waiting I decided to act. I had never done this before, but then the Anna Hazare wave was sweeping the country and I decided I should act. I first approached a cop who was manning the snarl and asked him who should be replacing the manhole cover. His response was destructive “ what is the point in replacing, some one will come and steal it the very next day”. He seemed disinterested and I thought to myself why this sense of resignation. This guy was standing there and directing traffic , inhaling all the pollutants yet he did not even wanted to attempt resolving it.

Next I took to the net and for the first time tried to understand who does what for Mumbai Municipality. I too was not hopeful, but I thought I should at least try. Surprisingly I found a lot of information on the net and from there I was guided to some help line numbers specifically for my ward. On my first attempt the receiver at the other end was very polite and asked me what kind of manhole was that, is it a storm water drain or sewage drain. Phew! how on earth would I know that. The guy at the other end patiently explained to me how to distinguish. Simple if it had dirty water spilling out of it then it is a sewage manhole!

I recalled that the drain was dry and he said then definitely it has to be storm water drain. He directed me to another number, at that point of time I thought this guy was just making me run from pillar to post. Nevertheless I called the number he provided me with.

This time it was answered by a curt guy, he did not ask me much detail other than what my complaint was about. He transferred the call and to my surprise the guy at the other end took my complaint and gave me a complaint number. He said the issue would be resolved in a weeks time. Honestly speaking I never expected to get a complaint number or a turn around time from a government department. Like how all Indians are eternal skeptics, I thought to myself  this cannot be true, nothing is going to happen. However before hanging up the phone I asked him what if it is not done in a weeks time, his response was “ call back and quote your complaint number”. Okay!

The complaint was lodged on a Saturday. On Tuesday when I was travelling to work in the morning I reached the highway seamlessly. It is only after reaching the highway did I realize that there was no block. I could not look back, I thought to myself, may be it’s a public holiday and fewer cars are on the road. I still could not believe that they would have closed the man hole. On my way back, I made it a point to slow down and see what has happened. Can you imagine a brand new man hole cover was in place and they had cemented it making it difficult for any one to steal it. It works!!!! I exclaimed to myself.

I was so happy that my effort worked, that I called up all my friends and narrated the story. They too were taken aback.

This incident proved that we Indians never attempt to resolve any issue, we just crib and complain that nothing works in this country. How many of us have even tried the system before passing the judgment. If each one of us makes it a point to resolve issues that affect us and make use of the system in place, it is bound to work. Systems are in place, but we always expect some one else to do it for us. In the end no one acts and then we lament “nothing works in this country”. My faith in the system has grown after this incident. As the Bible says “If you have faith as small as a mole hill, you can ask a mountain to move”. How true!