ETERNAL WAIT FOR A QUEUE-LESS SERVICE (30/04/2017)

I was late by 20 minutes when I arrived at the CHGS dispensary at 7.50 a.m. in the morning to collect the indented medicines for my mother. I wasn’t surprised to see the counter closed. The “chalta hai’ syndrome is very much live and kicking and a change in Government does not result in any improvement in the deliverance of service by the State, notwithstanding the tall claims of the Government of the day. The Department which provides public service on behalf of State need to sensitize their employees, whose interest, like a typical babu, still veers around the benefits they can extract from the Government, instead of leveraging their position to provide better public service. We need to still learn a lot more from developed nations in matters related to imparting a public service by the State- I pondered.

A notice at the counter informed that it was not mandatory for the physically challenged and those above eighty years of age to stand in queue. Yet due to delay in opening of the counter, a queue of elderly citizens, all past their eighties, had already formed. I was the only one less than eighty years of age in a queue of ten elderly people. While I kept cribbing within myself at the pathetic state of public services in India, those elderly citizens ahead of me in the queue, contrary to general perception about their age, stood in queue quite calm and maintained their cool. They were engaged in an animated discussion. I also got initiated into this discussion which veered around the queue system in India which they felt was a result of unmanageable population and a poor deliverance system of services by the State.

“Had it not been for internet, which facilitates a number of services online, the fate of people in India could have well been imagined. The nation continues to waste its valuable time and resources in queue. From one queue to another this life has become a long never-ending queue and the common man has taken it into his stride to stand in one queue or the other throughout his life - queue at the Public Distribution System, queue for exchange of demonetized currency, queue of patients at government run dispensaries, queue of travelers at railway counters, queue of beneficiaries at various government offices, queue of students at the admission counter and so on and so forth.”- One of them observed.

“Of late wasting time in queue makes you a patriot- this is the unique brand of patriotism we witness today. While our armed forces can stand at the borders for hours why can’t we stand in queue for a couple of hours? Queer logic. No one questions the delay on the part of the State to provide prompt services; no one questions the officials who are not in time in their office which results in long queues as today here at this dispensary. Everyone expects a piece of patriotism from the common man who is expected to bear all the brunt”- observed another.

“Thank God He has bestowed common Indian man with such resilience and patience. Thank God also for the fact that there isn’t a queue for upward journey to heaven”- the third heaved a sigh of relief.

The fourth one promptly cautioned him. “Janab, aap kis daur kee baat kar rahe hain? (Sir, what period are you talking about?). Have you ever visited an electric crematorium in recent times? I did just yesterday and was moved to see a queue of corpse awaiting their turn for cremation at the electric crematorium. The huge population of the nation has taken a toll on the quality of services everywhere”- he lamented.

“The queue you see at crematorium is your body and this system again is man made. Your soul does not wait in a queue and gets merged in the param-brahm even before your body is put to flames. In the autumn of our life when we wait to embrace our death, why worry about the present wait that is just momentary”- said the third one philosophically.

Before the discussion could have taken a philosophical turn, the counter opened and the discussion ended abruptly. I was simply amazed at the liveliness of those elderly people who had well understood that it is life that has limits, not death.