Being Good is considered weak, or even foolish!!

Many times we find that by being good, law abiding and disciplined could irritate others or induce reaction as though we are silly and foolish to being brashly arrogant . Or for that matter you might even be laughed at

• for following rules and regulations
• Standing against corruption
• Having civic sense.

1) live for another day
There are situations when I am invariably in a big confusion.
I will have 2 choices

1. To listen to my Heart.
2. To listen to my Mind.

Many times when we are in this situation, it would be something that is related to temptation.

when I was a kid, my heart tempts me to watch one more Over of cricket match atleast. My mind knows my heart, it knows that I will end up watching the whole match instead of studying.

Ok, in these kind of situations you know that mind is a better bet.

But, my dillema here is the opposite. Whenever I approach a traffic signal, these thoughts clog me down.

My heart says, I have to follow the traffic rules, I being a responsible citizen, being an educated guy, I who hates when ppl violate traffic rules and ppl with arrogant driving habits. how can I not stop down when the signal is RED, or just move on when the signal is Green!!

My Mind knows that, here all that matters is whether u can get past the signal safely, or even sometimes sneeking past the signal. It knows that no one follows rules, so u better not follow too, or else u would have hospital bed to rethink about principles of life!! My mind knows that, if i do slow down, there would be invariably a speeding cab or a autowallah who doesnt know what breaks are for, so if i do slow down he is going to RAM me. What the heck, there are no police out in that signal, who the hell cares. Even if there is a police babu, he would definetly know hyderabadis dont require any policing. We hyderabadis are self-regulating well oiled automatic traffic busters, who dont really require policing.

Even if I do follow my heart and stop at the green signal. I am sure there would be a raise noise levels as ppl honk ur ears out u would have to hear a mouthful of swears.

People also know that you are a saadhu type who stops at red at signals. There is a high chance that such people could even be considered gullible.

2) comfortable living vs loss of face

Put yourself in a govt official's shoes. Invariably you would have job of signing a few sheets of papers, put your important little stamp on the paper. Definitely your salary isnt that great. But it is just enough to put ur children in school, have a little bit of ration thats just enough for 1 mth. you are definitely under the burden of a loan, you have old parents to look after. you dont have a house of ur own, u r a good tenant and pay ur owner regularly and hope that he does not increase the rent next mth.

The only option that is left to increase your income would be to get promotion by serving your higher authorities(customer? who is that?). you are ready to do anything to get that little recommendation from ur boss for your next promotion after 5 yrs. You are also sure that your job is as safe as that post office saving that you do.Your only aim is to survive and u dream is to get that little luxury after you are done with long service.

Now, what do you do if you are in such a position from where you can accept bribe for the same job to do more quickly, or just ignore the details of the letter that you are supposed to accept and approve?
If you follow the path of easiest way, then you are swimming along the current. your subordinate accepted the bribe before u, ur boss might accept bribe after you too.

Now you must be silly and foolish to not accept bribe isnt it? if u follow the rules and regulations that is in your heart. u have to face lots of resistance, you would not get promotions, you would get transfered to some extremely remote places, or worst case is u could be framed, and surely u cud even be defamed and debarred. whats even worse is u being living on shoe lace margins. how can u concentrate on surviving?

u have to choose between comfortable living or loss of face both in society and your own family. you will take bribe!!! or else you must be silly, foolish or downright egoistic person

3)Taking the Right option only if it is ALSO an Easier option.

We always have a choice in our lives to take an easier option or a right option.More often than not they both are in opposite direction. If so, what do we do? There are many instances in our daily life where taking the right option might not be damaging for us personally, while taking the easier option might cause damage for others(others might include ourselves too, but we might be ignorant or even arrogant)

a) Imagine you have bought yourself a packet of chips and you are having fun with your friends in a park. What would you do when you finish your packet of chips, would you throw the cover on the ground, or you would put a few steps across and put in the dustbin? Ok, I've seen some of my friends who make it a point they would throw it in a dustbin only. If there is none around, they would put in his/her handbag/purse and surely put it in a dustbin.

Is it right thing to do, to put your litter in a dustbin? Plastic is non-bio-degradable, it pollutes the soil, if it is not handled properly. Forget about that, do we not keep our houses clean? do we spit on walls on of our home ? NO? Dont we have to have little civic sense? On top of that, plastic can poison the soil, all the plants that grow on such a soil are polluted. If our farmers cultivate on such a land, then whom will it affect? We have a counter thought, my one deed of good will not save the world, so I might as well dirty it! No Matter, But What will it cost you? will cost you any money or great effort? If we do find such ppl, we will silently laugh at them. We think this person is stupid.

But, We dont do such things when we are in US or singapore. We will put even the bubblegum in our pockets than pay a fine, isnt it? WE WILL DO THE RIGHT THING ONLY IF IT ALSO THE EASIER THING.

b) Many a time, we keep the tubes glowing and fans running even though we are not exactly making use of it. We would also keep the TV showing its programs to chairs and walls. We would keep the mobile chargers on even when we are not charging. Yeah, it would not really make a difference to our pockets. Again, when we find people who try to enforce such things or advice, we either hate them or ignore(or just think this person might be mad) them respectively. But surely, it does make a difference collectively. We might actually save a few MW of energy if it is only properly used within a small town. In a city as big as bangalore and hyderabad we can actually save a days power every month. We talk big about our energy policies, we blame the filthy politics each time there is an increase in charges. But when we ourselves are ignorant, and arrogant, when we are not willing to do a little bit, in our own small way. How can we expect that from the ppl who we have elected? Looks like, again the rule of "right thing becoming the easier thing" becomes true, we will not follow it...

There are loads of instances similar to these in our daily lives. It all depends on the choice we take to. Atleast we can take the right path (no matter if it is easier or not) in small little trivial things that dont cost us much, isnt it?