Its the middle class that goes crazy about corruption and it really does not matter. The voice of the middle class, as of now, is nothing but a irritating screech. What matters is what the ‘aam admi’ thinks of corruption.
There was this minister who was broke and was unable to conduct the wedding of his daughter. His friends said why not go ask the king for which the minister said NO. People thought he was haughty. This news entered the ears of the king who summoned him. The king was obviously angry with the ‘haughty minister’.
The minister went the king, he was distressed. The king bellowed “so you too proud for asking me for money for your daughters wedding?”
The minister hesitated and replied ” Dear King what I want for my daughters wedding is but little. How can I ask a great king like you for little money and insult you and your wealth? Hence the hesitation to ask you.
The king was so impressed that he showered his minister with a huge sum to conduct a grand wedding.
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I was friends with a successful industrialist. One day called me to his cabin and said he will fund me for a project. And he wanted me to submit a project proposal.
I went to the drawing board after much thought I came up with a business plan for Rs.35 lakhs and submitted to him. He was annoyed. He marvelled at my miniscule mind and said. You are fit enough to be a salaried employee and saw me out of his cabin.
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Back during my media days the editor of the newspaper I worked for always took the autorickshaw to move around though he was entitled for a car. According to him his conversations with the Auto drivers provided him with terrific insights about the real world.
So this auto guy I was talking to during the Raja and Maran scam days gave me the lesson of my life. The auto guy was actually proud of both Raja and Maran. Proud of the fact they were spoken of with big money not some pittance. He went on to say in tamil “adicha eppadi thaan saar adikanum” (if out hit you must hit this way)
Somewhere in all this I tend to surmise that the magnitude of corruption these days are indicators of the size of the economy. We have to expand our minds to accommodate these numbers ( I dint say huge numbers).
We need to work against corruption in any form not just get ticked off by the size of it.
Tilted Plus 