A Little More Respect Please!!!!!

Is it really difficult to respect another individual???

Aren't the guys selling vegetables on the road, driving our cars or doing the other so called “menial" chores eligible for any kind of respect???

I was coming out of the club after playing another round of Badminton with my friends and as usual we were all busy discussing the game. We were passing by the golf course, where, I saw a caddy getting shouted by and pushed around by an employee of the club. The employee even slapped the poor caddy and nobody even bothered to look back. I have no idea of what had transpired between the two, but I could make out that the caddy had erred in his job somewhere and hence the employee was pissed and giving the caddy a piece of his mind.

We saw this taking place, I looked back for a while, my friends saw it for a minute, continued their conversation and we all walked away to our respective homes to plan for yet another Saturday night out. Life continued as usual for us. Unfortunately I guess we all have become a little too used to witnessing scenes like this.

My problem is not whether the employee was wrong and the caddy was right. My problem is the way in which we treat another individual especially the ones who are not conventionally "rich”, "powerful" or if I may put it bluntly; “people who are less powerful than us in one way or another".

Every individual whether rich or poor, powerful or weak, educated or uneducated, blue collared or white collared deserves his/her respect.

I have done it myself. I have not always been the most polite with the waiters, haven’t always had the courtesy to say "thank you" to my maid and I have even shouted/abused the plumbers/electricians/drivers/ auto wallahs.

I am not saying that we never need to put our foot down. In certain times, it becomes almost necessary to do so. But, we as Indians, as a society, we can certainly be more polite, more courteous and just a little bit more "nice" to everybody around us.

In saying so, I do not even for a second mean that it is all hunky dory in other societies/countries, but yes, societies such as British, American, Japanese and a lot of others are more respectful and do allow every individual to live their lives with more self respect.

As a society and as a country we have everything going for us. Great culture, booming economy, legendary history and a generation of achievers and go getters. If and only if we bring a little more respect, little more politeness and a little more care in our behavior, we will make our society and our country a much better place to stay for EVERYbody.

P.S.: Trust me, a smile and a couple of courteous words can work wonders with even the toughest Mumbai Cabwallah!!!