Recent images of overenthusiastic Indian tourists dancing on Hanoi airport’s tarmac and train tracks on Train Street in the city were very disturbing. The group obviously thought they were entertaining local people and earning brownie points from the host country’s citizens — indeed, one can see amused faces of those sitting at restaurant tables alongside – but they completely forgot that doing such irresponsible acts leaves a horribly bad taste and sends across a poor message of our soft power!
We are trying hard to become a ‘developed nation’ in two decades, and that can’t happen if we do not improve our societal traits — along with all the great work on economic growth, infrastructure build-up, the manufacturing sector, new products like semiconductors, AI boost, healthcare statistics such as infant and maternal mortality, life expectancy, immunisation drives, etc. Sadly, we don’t seem to pay any attention to ‘civic sense’.
We spit on the roads and on walls of government offices, turn flights and restaurants into private spaces, play music on loudspeakers till late at night, encroach on roads for private functions, burst crackers despite bans imposed by the government and the judiciary … almost everything that is wrong. In fact, many people consider such acts as bravado! We might get away with these shenanigans at home, but surely in civilised countries, it tarnishes India’s image. Not just ‘civic sense’; we woefully lack respect for others’ lives and property!
A lot of people have written about the spectacle our tourists made in Vietnam, lamenting the two incidents in Vietnam — a big family doing garba on the airport tarmac and a group of friends dancing to the racy Chaiyya-Chaiyya song (that Shahrukh Khan and Malaika Arora performed on top of a moving train) on the train tracks on a narrow city street in Hanoi. I have also written about this pathetic lack of civic sense in many of my columns in BW Businessworld. We have been humiliated — as a nation — due to the unruly behaviour of some of our fellow citizens.
Distinguished industrialist Harsh Goenka recently mentioned a notice, in a Swiss hotel in the charming resort town of Gstaad, addressing exclusively Indian guests: “Please do not carry food away from the breakfast buffet, avoid speaking loudly in corridors and balconies, be mindful of other guests”. He also wrote about a group feasting on food brought from home, including offensive pungent pickles, in the hotel lobby, and chatting at full volume without a care for others. Obviously, these were rich people who could afford to stay in a super expensive hotel!
Perhaps, such behaviour by tourists started way back in the 1950s when Americans developed a reputation for their arrogant tourists, throwing money around and treating the locals as dirt. It probably stopped in 1958 with the bestseller ‘The Ugly American’. Even though the book was focused on the failing American diplomacy in Asia, it made most tourists cautious. Offensive behaviour like what our people did in Vietnam is probably not how most Indian travellers behave abroad. It could be just a few people, but such incidents bring a bad name to the entire country and build bad reputations. In some ways, each one of us, travelling abroad, is a sort of ambassador of our country. It hurts when someone suggests, on the social media circuit, that embassies of various countries — especially those that allow us to enter without a prior visa — should stop the facility for Indians!
We are doing incredibly well on many fronts — including negotiating our way through most of the tragic geopolitical conflicts. Our diplomacy has handled the situation well, and we have managed to remain ‘independent’ even during the ‘US/Israel – Iran’ war. This has helped us feel the pinch of energy supplies much less than many other countries. We have a place on the global high table, and our opinion counts with the biggest and most powerful nations. This, to happen to a nation with a per capita GDP of less than USD 4000, is truly phenomenal. But, we continue to spit paan anywhere, throw garbage on the roads and in parks, urinate in public places, drive recklessly on the wrong side, break queues, kill for a parking place or for someone overtaking us and commit other such dastardly acts.
To my mind, such rude behaviour goes back to our upbringing and primary education. Parents must take the blame for their children making a spectacle anywhere. Kids used to imbibe good ‘value education’ from their elders. Sadly, many parents — due to economic necessities — just don’t have much time to spend with their children. Our early schooling system must rise to the occasion. Good, qualified teachers can make a huge difference and inculcate civic sense at the kindergarten (KG) /primary stage.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publication. |
