I against Corruption

I know I am too old for bed time stories now. So does my dad. But every now and then, he tells me one to drive home some important pearl of wisdom. So as India goes crazy over Shri Anna Hazare and his anti corruption crusade, he though it apt to narrate the following story…

One day Chanakya received a visitor while the former was working on something important. The visitor noticed that Chanakya had two lamps, one on either side of his seat, and one lit while other unlit. The visitor could not understand the reason behind this and ignored it as trivia. Chanakya motioned him to sit. And then he blew off the lamp in the light of which he had been working and lit another lamp. The visitor could contain his curiosity no further and asked him openly if it was the custom of the land … not to receive the visitors in the light of already lit lamp.

To this Chanakya smiled and told him that when the visitor had arrived, he had been doing some official work and therefore, had been working in the light of the lamp that had been lit by official resources. But since, the meeting with the visitor was unofficial and personal; he could not waste the official and national resources and therefore had lit the other lamp that belonged personally to him.

It is only when each individual reaches this level of discretion of right and wrong, can we hope to have a non corrupt society. And individuals are the building blocks of societies and nations. Are they not? And let us also not forget that strong buildings cannot rest on weak foundations.

So, today keep Chanakya in your mind and ask yourself … Am I or am I not corrupt? Did I or did I not defect while performing my duties? And this is valid for any slightest form of defection. Not just the big hyped defection that we hear and see in news.

India against corruption … I support this … I heartily want to breathe in such an India … I too dream of such an India.

And for this dream to become a reality, every “I” will have to stand against corruption before “India” does.