THAT WAS NOT MY DUTY

“That was not my duty anyway”, the statement which I hear often or may be this statement makes a strong impact on me that makes me feel like I hear it often. Either ways this thing keeps running in my mind seeking justification for its meaning ever since I started thinking rationally. “I’ve done my job, that’s not my responsibility”- when does a person say these words? - When a person is asked to do something really he’s not supposed to do (but that’s not the case all the time). It signifies one’s inefficiency, lack of ability, lack of interest and more importantly lack of humanity!!! Well, wait wait, what does humanity got to do here, he is not saying that he won’t do his duty, all he claims is that he won’t do something which is not his duty/responsibility. Is he right or wrong? I’m not sure, but doing one’s duty without realizing the actual cause for doing it is as good as not doing at all. Many officials follow the rules just for the sake of following it forgetting the actual reason for which the rules were defined.

Once I wanted to book a train to Coimbatore from Chennai. It was a round trip journey and again I had to go back to Coimbatore in just couple of days after the return. It was a sultry afternoon and the booking centre at Chennai-mambalam was already suffocating with over crowd. Being a partly civilized Indian I waited patiently in the queue for more than 2 hours until my chance to go to the counter came. I had to book three tickets totally and the person in the counter rejected my forms stating that according to rules he was not supposed to book more than two tickets for the same person. The ultimate purpose for framing such rules was to avoid stagnation and to avoid ticket brokers who block an entire line having bunches of their customers’ form. But with me it was a different case, I was booking tickets for myself and between same stations and journeys were scheduled within a week. The rule was formed to benefit the passengers and it shouldn’t have been a hindrance to me, and while trying to explain all these things to him, he booked two of the tickets, one to return from Coimbatore and my next journey to Coimbatore. Things can’t go crazier than this, without going to Coimbatore, how can I return from there. It’s next to impossible to get a ticket either in bus or in train from Chennai to Coimbatore at eleventh hour especially during festive season. The remaining tickets were very few and I pleaded him to book one more ticket that was very essential. He started shouting at me and he said that I have stopped him from doing is duty and he continued saying that it was because of people like that India is getting corrupted and lot of honest government officials are misdirected because of people of my caliber and what not. If he had been allowed he would have told even that I was solely responsible for India’s debts and for all the wars with neighboring nations, internal riots etc. Later he called the public for his support, which were standing behind me in the line and obviously they came for all they need is to throw me out of the row to get their work done. I explained the situation to them and one of the gentlemen in the row agreed with my argument and asked the official to book the ticket for me, but he wouldn’t listen.




All I could do according to the rules was to go and stand at the end of the row and wait for another two hours to get my ticket booked. But by that time the counter would get closed. So I asked him to cancel the return ticket because there was no hope that I would get to the destination and there is point in having the return ticket. He said ‘no’ for that also because according to the rules he was not supposed to perform more than two transactions per passenger, be it reservation or cancellation. My god, this was getting on the top of my nerve and I was completely helpless.

Though the person was technically correct and he performed his duty of booking two tickets perfectly he was completely useless. All I had in my hand was two tickets which I could not use unless he books an onward journey ticket and I was already thrown out of the booking center. I could hear his voice from there lamenting to his counter parts “saavu kirakki, thaali arukka vandhuttan pa, duty time la disturb pannitaan pa”. If I have to technically translate his statement he means that “I’m a person with a dead body who disturbs him during working hours to cut the sacred thread (mangal soothra).

So what does the word duty mean? According to my e-dictionary duty means “Work that you are obliged to perform for moral or legal reasons”. Each and every one of us is bound to do our work both on legal and moral reasons. Legal reasons are described on the paper and every organization has its own rules and regulations to follow. But moral reasons come from within, the reasoning capability that every individual possess. We have to make use of those underlying sixth sense and perform our duties. Such an act I technically define it as HUMANITY. Be human for all humans, we are human beings not the same old Homo sapiens. Doing the duty with humanity means taking up the responsibility, if every one of us take up the responsibility we will really shine and yes one day we can it will be really meaningful to say “India shines”.

I wanted to convey this thing to all and hence I have penned it down. Will it create any impact on someone and ignite the spark needed for the society? Will someone carry this lamp to illuminate the lives socially blind? Well that’s not my duty anyways….