Friday, January 24, 2020

Can we let an incident happen ??



Long long back, some 27 years ago, I managed the customer support for a midsized IT company. And we maintained hardware, software and network infrastructure for our large machines and workstations. And we assured our customers 98% up time in our support contracts.
And we had a nice polite word for any breakdowns, system crashes and other IT failures. We called them ‘Incidents’, Incidents of failures. So, a terminal or a workstation station breakdown was an incident. A huge disc crash was another incident. A campus wide network blackout was also an incident.
And I figured that the harmless sounding word  ‘incident’ was most appropriate. Most IT support folks live on high tension wires. So, no point in rattling their sensitive frayed nerves further with such alarmingly sounding words like a Crash or a Breakdown.
So, anything out of ordinary and disruptive meant an incident and a call got logged for a its proper addressal.

An let me tell you about another incident.
I stepped into a fresh laid dog poop (presumably by a very large dog) on the footpath, during one of my morning walks thru a posh locality in South Delhi. Not a great way to start a wonderful early summer day in Delhi.
And I had to abandon my favourite 2-year-old well-worn Nikes and walk home in my socks.

And coming back to Sobha Palladian..
No one can guarantee that the best of well-trained pets, will not poop or pee on our lawns & bushes.  And as some pet owners claim, the dogs are entitled to poop & pee on the lawns, just like children are equally entitled to scatter chocolate wrappers all around!!!
So, let’s wait for many more unsuspecting resident to walk into an uncleared poop here and let a few of our kids get infected with the toxic pee (we already have one case)
Do we want to have such frequent incidents  ??

A few days back my wife, Jayanthi overheard a bunch of excited young cycle riders near the exit gate ramp, “Lets us go down to the basement and start from there, OK ??”
No one can guarantee that an unlucky kid might bump into an equally unlucky elder.
So lets wait for such a 7 year old to speed test his new birthday bike and bang into a senior citizen and break a few bones for both parties .
Do we want to have such an incident ??

No one can deny that deep frying and serious cooking in front of Block 5 and inside Clubhouse pantry (which is not designed for such use) is a messy and dangerous affair.
So, let’s wait for one careless cook to topple a boiling vat of oil and pakories or something much worse.
Do we want to have such an incident ??

Most of us know that the Indane gas cylinder delivery person (Raju?) is rude, cheats and extorts money. Even Col Jagi Narula’s family was cheated once.
So, we can les this deliver person continue to extort us and pick up fights with security and get emboldened enough to seriously misbehave with one of our residents.
Do we really want to have such an incident ??

And do you really want me to continue further ?
About stray cats and placing potted plants on balcony ledges and so on ??

And it is a real credit to all SP residents to be so polite, understanding and silently suffer the    many many inconveniences like
litter thrown by residents from top floors,
overflowing balcony wash water,
pets disturbing people late nights and early mornings,
people smoking and throwing butts thru the chute or accidently toppling ashtrays on other’s gardens,
 see  patches of our lawns getting discoloured  by people taking shortcuts on the grass &  dog pee
and other lawn patches like opposite Block 5 get permanently damaged,
and  children shattering glass panes and kicking footballs recklessly,
and people not taking garbage segregation seriously and placing foul smell garbage in the corridors,
and  people encroaching common spaces (including me as per the MC notice),
and cycles piled up near stairways
and on and on I can go !!

And how long with the poor patient and extremely understanding good rule abiding residents bear such totally irresponsible and unacceptable behaviours ??
Very soon their patience will dry out
Temper will flare up
The fuse of politeness will blow out
And they will take action, pick up fights and turn our entre society into a fighting and squabbling grounds!
Yes. Very soon Whats App war of words will get face to face and then fist to fist !!

People, I have seen it happen!
 For 25 years I have lived in Delhi and Gurgaon colonies, small and large apartment complex.
I have see ugly scenes between pet owners and dog haters.
I have seen windowpanes getting shattered every other month, fights with kids, balls and bats getting confiscated and stumps been broken in retaliation.
I have seen sober, soft-spoken South Indian mamas and mamis engaged in bitter shouting matches with party loving Punjabis.
I have seen nasty arguments between young parents of noisy unruly kids (utterly spoilt brats to be precise) with belligerent and bad tempered 70-year-old couples.
Between smokers and non-smokers on their entitlement to smoke in parks.
Over blowing loud car horns late nights, car parking spaces, loud music/drinking /dancing ………
And more and more.
Fights every Sunday morning. Bitching and bickering all throughout the week.
Not pleasant at all.

And do we wish our community to degenerate to such an extent??

Wise people learn from other’s mistakes.
And the wiser ones?  They anticipate and take proactive action !!

Isn’t it time for all of us to take proactive action, some hard decisions, discipline ourselves & work towards building a  nice, safe and a beautiful society ?
So pl decide, Folks !!! 
We must draw up some very clear code of conduct and strict disciplinary guidelines and follow them religiously.

And for a starter, let’s stop walking and taking short cuts on the grass ?? Let’s  Use the nicely paved pathways all around.
And same for pets and  children above 6 years &  cycles/strolleys .

As the wise one said
Its time to tighten your belts, people..
Or you can risk losing your pants !!

Living in a beautiful, clean, safe and hygienic society is our entitlement!
And we have paid a bomb for it!!

Krish..


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