Where violation is a virtue

It's taken an overnight tunnel site accident that resulted in loss of one, perhaps 3, innocent lives in a highway project of my company that compelled me to put pen to paper on what's increasingly becoming a general, undiagnosed malaise among our countrymen.

I feel fortunate and thank God for keeping me safe and away from that tragedy as it was no later than three days since I visited that tunnel myself as part of an audit in that project. While I lay here, hale, I feel terrible about those poor workers who're no more. Trapped under the collapsed earth, inside, with hardly any air to breathe, few may even be clinging on, fighting for dear life for rescue to reach. I pray they all are rescued before their last throes.

Times like these one wonders if science has failed us, or have we failed to harness it to the extent we could. Or maybe there's something else. Engineering is always a challenge in a diverse geography like India. And our knowledge of niche engineering is largely confined only to the limits of the experience our resident engineers possess and our education system, or the lack of it. A fortunate few pursue and obtain Class I, state of the art knowhow abroad. But largely, subject specialisation lacks variety and depth overall in our institutes. The system, we know, doesn't merit knowledge and aptitude, but reproduction of content on paper. An assembly line of doubtful degrees moves every year. We feel the pinch when on the ground, while undertaking construction in tough terrain. While fighting the forces of nature, our dependence on imported knowledge increases. We then realise we hardly possess expertise to doubt an advice in a technical and practicable way. The advice may prove something that may fail us in the most dire of need as the matter is usually taken as Gospel truth and unquestionable, especially when it emanates from a national belonging to a developed country.

We trust, but fail to verify.

Again, such outsourced solutions to homegrown, inherent problems often assume a level of work culture and discipline that's widely seen and followed abroad, usually in the home country of the advisors or consultants. The work ethos in Indian projects is such that negligence is often perceived as a virtue. A project manager found ignoring safety and environmental measures is deemed practical and pragmatic, and someone who's really driving the work at a scorching pace. A man like him is most likely to meet timelines and reduce the company's woes. With debts piling up, banks increasingly sceptical on further lending, mounting interest costs and an unsympathetic Clients, infra Cos are in dire straits no doubt. So Mr. Bulldozer eventually becomes the apple of the CEO's eyes, his numero uno, and almost always a potential elevation come March. These modern day minotaurs are notorious for ignoring workers health, hygiene and camp quarters. Tragically, they overlook a fact that foreign advice often presumes good to excellent working conditions and systems, and an uncompromising dedication to quality.

In both, he bargains while his workers pay a price.

I also find some other indirect reasons for worker deaths, accidents and general unsafe working conditions. They, in my view, are:

1. Constant comparisons to China, that feed hallucinations of fast growth and imaginary catch up. Work is sped up full throttle as our Elephant (white) needs to fly past the flying dragon soon. 
2. Unavailability and increasing rarity of Land as a resource and grants of other clearances. This leads to contractors making do with whatever is at hand and cutting corners in the process. 
3. Unrealistic project durations set by the client, one who's fond of toothing it's own horn to market construction of 10, 20, 30 km per day to grab headlines. 
4. Scarcity of construction materials especially sand and aggregates. These lead to acceptance of substandard works as rework costs using these materials are very high to the contractor. Clients and consultants often "sympathise" with the contractor. 
5. Local problems and political interference leads to a feeling among contractors to just finish the damn job and get out of there. Environment, health, safety be damned.
6. Most infra Cos are owner driven and hold no internationally accepted HR practices and almost no sense of accountability. Rarely do heads roll following a disaster at site. The buck never stops anywhere. 
7. Last but not the least, palms of who's who of the project are invariably greased and a below average performance is "considered". 

Our population is like a large jute sack full of peas. Even if a pea or two pop out when we're running with the sack, it doesn't matter.

On the Salman Khan case

We Indians love grabbing the high moral ground. Given a chance we'd love to sit pretty atop an ethical perch looking down on the mortals, some popular some commoners, and judge them till death. The Salman Khan hit-and-run episode that culminated in his convition nearly 13 years after the occurrence is a case in point. While most of us, the professedly non-partisan viewers, have chastisized him for runnning away from the scene, offering no remorse and blatantly lying on oath during trial, few have actually gone into the how and why "society" (sic) perceived the entire case and the individual in question. 

By having the comfort of not being a party to this sad incident one can easily make an opinon and colour it with a sense of right and wrong. It does'nt need much to do that. Anyone with even a basic sense of what constitutes humane behaviour can say what SK ought to and ought not to have done at the scene and later during trial. But when the authorities comes knocking at your door how many of us can actually stand our ground and do the very things what we expect this "celebrity" should've done? The truth being: put yourself in his shoes and you would have done something similar, no matter how firecely you condemn SK now. How easy is it to find those who, after committing a crime, brave the odds and turn themselves in, face the judgement and bear the punishment. When push comes to shove we too would hire a 'black coat' and try twisting the law of the land without batting an eyelid. No one wants to bear the full brunt of the law, and this I dare say applies to almost any goody-two-shoes. In the courtroom, even a saint would do all he can to cushion the weight of the law before it falls on him. And this is all under oath. It's the fear of the gavel, milord!

We always tend to set and expect celebrities to consistently meet the unassailable benchmark of values. While the standard would usually not apply to our kith and kin we argue and demand the rich and the famous observe it without protest. Aren't these celebrities being human (pun not intended) afterall? Isn't it about time that we see them as fallible individuals just like most of us are? Why do we feel that they need to live their lives setting examples to one and all and always try to attain the highest moral pedestal, nothing less? There are no Mr/Ms Perfects and let us accept that. They too can, and have, faultered and had a brush against the laws of the land. Unfortunately an innocent life was lost but it could have actually happened to anyone. A boozer, a rash driver, a driving enthusiast, an adrenaline junkie... anyone. SK was perhaps all of this.. only he was caught in the act and killed a pavement dweller in his moment of madness.

Come to think of it, we've all tried and probably have "breaking/broken the law" either for fun or out of negligence but we have, albeit in smaller and less serious measure. We're no law abiding citizens ourselves and let's admit it. Among us there are employees who produce fake bills for reimbursements, those who bribe traffic policeman when caught without helmets or seat belts, and those who jump the occassional traffic signal when "no one's around, watching". We're as "sincere" as any celebrity. Again in SK's case, had it been a common man who was in his shoes, the arguments his lawyer would've made could have been as deceiving or worse. The man would've probably bribed one and all and got his name cleared. However, here, the media didn't take its foot off the pedestal in SK's trial and we all voyeuristically read on and judged SK after every proceeding, being true to our nature as 'armchair critics'. Were our values on leave since 2002 till now when we watched his movies and TV shows, raved over his performances (although I personally thought it impossible, given his acting or the apparent absence of it), and recommended his movies to our friends or family? Why didn't we boycott him back then? How did his movies prove such blockbusters had we innocent observers not patronized his films and shows? We're all selective Ghajinis. I also find it hypocritical that many of us came out with this "spare a though for the victim' family" supplement while damning Salman. Most of us, we know this, don't even acknowledge the presence of the numerous poor and homeless people we encounter daily, either at the bus stop, at the station or at the traffic signal. Do we really "spare a thought" for the poor? Honestly? Are we actually so socially caring or charitable that we defend the poor victim's family's rights only when they are violated by celebrities? Where's our voice on the issues our country faces everyday where lower sections are stamped upon? Unbelieveable! But then, everybody likes to be a spokesperson for the poor right? To his credit, SK did engage in a lot of charitable work and espoused many a cause even before the incident. We can doubt our own sincerity towards causes but not that fact.

In closing: nobody's perfect, we're all nobodies. To borrow MJ's lyrics: "I'm starting with the man in the mirror; I'm asking him to change his ways".

P.S: This in no way is my attempt to criticize the judgement or condone Salman Khan. Accepting celebrities for the ability to err is what we can learn, given how frequently we err ourselves.