Corruption - The primal instinct

Cast-


Dinesh Mantri ( Papa) : A middle aged executive working for an MNC . Dinesh has reached his position with lots of struggle and sacrifices in life.

Abhishek D Mantri ( Pappu) : Dinesh’s 10 year old son. Studying at one of the premier schools in the city. A very smart and talented character

Snehal D Mantri ( Mommy) : Well it has to be Mrs. Mantri . Graduate. Sacrificed her career for family like many a women of her times

Prachi D Mantri( Didi) : 16 year old bubbly teenager. Just out of her high school.

Ashok Mantri ( Dada) : Dinesh’s father. A retired Railway employee.

Location - Living room of Mr. Mantri’s apartment at a premium location in the city.

Scene -Papa sitting on the sofa working on his laptop when the door bell rings . The maid who incidentally is cleaning nearby opens the door. In comes Pappu and throws his school bag on the sofa .

Pappu : Hello Papa ! Not gone to office today ?

Papa : Hello Pappu ! How was your school today ?

Pappu: As usual !But how come you are at home ?

Papa: I am working from home today .

Pappu : That’s great ! I wish we had a schooling from home like that ! Btw where is Mommy?

Papa : She is in the kitchen. Why don’t you freshen up so that we can have lunch together?

( Pappu vanishes into his room. Papa still engrossed with his Laptop. Meanwhile ,Didi arrives and goes to her room after saying hi to her Papa)

(A while later…..)

Pappu: Papa Can you tell me something about corruption ? Actually we are supposed to research and write an essay on some socially relevant topic. I have chosen corruption.

Papa : (Visibly proud of his Son’s choice) That’s great beta. You need to be socially conscious and write about such things .

Pappu : Yess papa . But I need your help on this. Can you help me write something on it ?

Papa : (Wondering what he must tell to a 10 year old ) Basically Corruption is all that bad things that people do around . We see and hear a lots about it these days . Why don’t you come up with some examples and we will discuss them.

Pappu : Oh…So corruption is about all the bad things people do, isn’t it ? Today morning Raghu pushed me while boarding the school bus because he wanted the window seat. Even the other day, a man almost stomped me and Mom when we were about to get into the city bus . I hate such bad people !

Papa : (Confused and thinking what to say) Well Pappu. That’s not corruption. You can call it indiscipline or rude behavior. But not corruption.

Pappu : ( A bit disappointed ) Oh ..ok

Pappu makes a note in his notebook

Jumping in lines is rude or indecent . Not corrupt

Pappu : Dad, Saxena sir always favours Rishi because his dad and Saxena sir are friends. I bet he is corrupt.

Papa : That a bad thing to do boy. But you call it immoral act. Not corruption.

Pappu makes another entry

Immorality is not corruption

Pappu : Dad … How about Didi bunking classes ? The other day I saw her with Rohan at Adlabs during college hours !

( A perplexed Papa doesn’t know what to say ! Didi makes and entry at the same time and whacks Pappu…. They are indulged in their good little fight )

Didi : Papa , We had off that day .And besides Rohan was helping me with my scooty’s flat tyre ! And you ‘kiddo’ Thats not corruption OK !

Pappu’s notebook entry

Bunking is not corruption .Neither is telling lies

Papa : ( sternly) Prachi , I don’t want you to be seen anywhere other than college . Do you understand ?

Papa : Pappu , Corruption basically happens when one stands to gain by favoring other.

Pappu : Like ? Like when you favored Kailash Uncle for the post of Society secretary because he allowed us to cover the balcony ?

Papa : ( Now a bit unnerved ) Abhishek mind your words! That was me helping him. Not corruption !

Helping people for petty (undue) favour is not corruption

( By now Didi is involved in the discussion since her favorite soap is over)

Didi : Dad, what was the Satyam scam about ? Isnt that corruption. ?

Papa: Yes. But not exactly. They call it fraud or corporate malpractice.

Didi : And the subprime crisis in US ? Last time you were pretty angry at them when you had to quit Lexasys .

Papa : Well that was a systemic failure which nobody anticipated .

Didi : Does that mean the best financial brains in the world didn’t anticipate this ?

Papa : Well that’s what we are made to believe.

Entry into Pappu’s notebook

Business has different terms for bad things. They are called crisis, fraud, malpractice. But not corruption. Also these things happen in many other countries as well.

( Mommy enters and directs everybody to the dining table. The discussion continues)

Mommy : Tur Dal has reached 76 rs Kilo.

Pappu : ( interrupting excitedly) Dad ..is this because of corruption ? I heard even sugar prices are going up. Ramu kaka was telling that the grocer is stocking lots of sugar .

Papa : Pappu beta. The grocer is just being opportunist. Well you can kinda call it corruption…but…..not in real sense.

Entry

Stocking of foodgrains and necessary stuff for the purposes of making profits can be called as corruption .But not exactly.

Mommy : What is this corruption thing going on ? Be quick and finish your lunch.

( The family has just finished lunch and still busy with the discussion on corruption when Dadaji enters )

Didi : Good afternoon Dadaji !

Dada : Good afternoon beta. Whats going on ?

Pappu : Dadaji I need to write an essay on corruption .So dad was helping me with that. Btw ,did you have corruption during your times ?

Dada : Well , it was there .But not as much as now. But then we also did not have all these media and channels in those days. So things never came out.

Pappu’s entry

Corruption was supposedly less in olden days .Media attention has brought focus to it.

The discussions continues for the rest of the afternoon and Abhishek learns a lot of new things in his pursuit of information about corruption. He also searches the net and has had good insight into things. He submitted his essay the next week and was applauded by his teacher. She sent the copy to his father for his comments .Dinesh was astounded by what he read! Here’s what Abhishek has to say

"During my research of corruption, I came across many a bad things that people do and possess. Some of them fit the generally recognized definition of corruption while others are identified by different words like immoral, unethical, anti social, illegal, malpractice etc. Wikepedia provides different meanings of corruption, which encompasses almost all the vices in human behavior.

Most of these tendencies originate from the basic human desire to achieve their goals,many a times at the cost of others . However, this tendency is not just restricted to humans but observed in other animals as well. “ Law of Jungle” or “ Might is right” are good phrases to signify this behavior. When this is done in the framework of law ,morality and socially acceptable practices of those times, such people are praised as achievers. Many others often knowingly or unknowingly  subvert the established legal and social framework in the process of attaining their goals .

Good and bad acts also are a function of time and geography. Certain practices acceptable in a particular era may be illegal or immoral later. Similarly certain acceptable practices in a country might be illegal in others. However inspite of this, the root cause of all these vices resides in human desire to achieve-fast. The problem is aggravated by the god given intelligence found in human beings. While animals would normally fight and settle for their ‘needs’, humans have a long list of ‘wants’ which surpass their ‘needs’. With the world moving so fast, it is but natural that an increasingly more number of people would want to adopt every means at their disposal to achieve their goals. Hence the increase in corruption, frauds, illegal activities etc.

Corruption is not a standalone problem , but rather like others, a symptom or outcome of a primal human attribute. While this primitive desire has led to enormous progress of mankind, it has also introduced many a  challenges in the path. Hence, the problem of corruption and its solution cannot be seen in isolation. Rather it is linked to the fundamental changes required in human attitude about life, the world and the universe at large.

Two lions cannot stay in the same dominion . It is not their primitive instinct. And they also donot have the capability to change it .

Do we have it ??"