Something I noticed at New Delhi Airport might be the reason to a bigger problem.
My wife and I were visiting our family back home in India for the first time after our marriage two years ago. Stepping in your home country is a different feeling. Anyway, as we were approaching the immigration counter, out of 10, maybe 5 were open with a separate line for passengers with infants. “That’s really thoughtful,” I said to myself. This was on the left side of our view. While on the right side, I saw a separate glassdoor particular area for foreign passengers with a seating area. The selfless me liked this arrangement, applauding how the Indian government is making sure the passengers get a comfortable first impression of India. On the other hand, the selfish guy in me was bitching about the situation as we were standing in a long zig-zag line waiting for our turn.
A few questions arose in me looking at all this. Why do we more care about tourists than our own citizens? I understand that every tourist should get to see the best possible India. After all, Atithi Devo Bhava. But not at the cost of Indian citizens suffering. It doesn’t look right. Stop doing things with the thought that what will the world think of our nation. But take actions thinking of your citizens, what will they think, what will I think.
Open all the counters all the time, don’t make us wait in lines to get through to see our own country and have a sitting area for foreign immigration. The few countries that I have visited, I have never seen this.
To top all this, elderly Indians who had requested for wheelchair have to stand in line as well. This is ridiculous. I mean, you cannot even provide assistance for elders at immigration, and you have a separate line for passengers with infants. I am noticing that my tone of writing has drastically changed because of anger. The last thing any of you want to see is an elderly woman suffering just because you think it’s convenient for the process.
Experiencing all this, I believe that this kind of behavior gets trickled down to other services in India as well. One small change in thinking might do wonders for Indians and Indians all around the world in general.
STOP DOING THINGS TO IMPRESS OTHERS.
First, correct things within, so what foreign passengers will have to stand in a line for a while. Believe me, they are used to that. It’s only in India where we value language more than knowledge. Get over the language, embrace our mother tongue, and love it. English should be the 3rd of the 4th language spoken in India.
A small observation, in my last travel to Azerbaijan, the local travel guide manager told me that English is their 4th language. First being Azerbaijani of course, second Turkish, third Russian and forth being English. They don’t care what people will think of them because they don’t know English that well. And honestly, nobody cares. Only we judge other Indians based on their proficiency in the English language.
A few steps here and there, and we can go a long way.
