All Hail Corruption !!

We are living in a age when this word corruption has become so common that we don't even dare to imagine about a world without it. It has sunk its roots deep inside our whole infrastructure and system. Domains as diverse as education to defence are all immersed in the black sea of corruption. Not even one day passes when there is no news of corruption on the everyday-mushrooming news channels who them selves form an integral part of corrupt media. So what is corruption, how does it begin, what are the steps being taken by the corrupt authorities to stop it, how can we actually get out of this marshland?

So what is corruption? You see being a student of corruption I don't feel any reluctance in copying the definition (and much more coming later on) of corruption from the wikipedia article devoted to the topic. So this is what it goes like “The word corrupt (Middle English, from Latin corruptus, past participle of corrumpere, to destroy : com-, intensive pref. and rumpere, to break) when used as an adjective literally means "utterly broken"”. So what if its a middle east word? Its prevalent in every part of the world. The scenario is such that if somebody claims to be 100% honest and far from corruption, the chances are that he / she is either a lying lawyer, politician giving a press statement or a common man in search of an opportunity. Now, I see you sighing “Not me” under your breath, but come on!, you don't have to admit it to the world. But the ground reality is that you too have it in your blood to be corrupt ... just think about it while introspection and you will realise the percentage of truth in my claim.

It starts at a very tender age, right when your parents bribe you by promising something materialistic in lieu of your good marks ( yeah I know its stolen from 3 Idiots, so what? We all are corrupt – why should I be honest and pour my original ideas?) . Every new recruit has a clear conscience but the prevalent corruption and the healthy environment created by it just makes it easy for the system to modulate him / her and head in a direction without destination. Be it the most popular and most advertised corrupt department of police or the crucial education firms, we have people who wish to be paid more than they work and also dream of becoming a billionaire overnight. So why wouldn't corruption prevail?

Everybody who blames the corrupt authorities for not eradicating it, is also corrupt, because knowing that the authorities are corrupt they still expect them to take actions against it. And aren't we happy about the presence of corruption? Ah come'on is this what we actually understand from corruption? Nah, its something that sincerely comes to our rescue in difficult times. Really, the corrupt media has defaced, demeaned and demonized corruption. In the real sense we are all happy when one of our friends at post-office gets our job done from behind the window and we are spared the wait and trouble of standing in the queue. Also don't you enjoy when you get some of our task gets easily done just by paying up? And isn't it convenient when a friend of yours does not have to spend a night in the police lock-up coz he as high-level connections or has a little-more-than-sufficient money to stuff the authority's mouth with?

So who is promoting corruption and who is letting it prevail ? Yes its us. You me and everybody who sits silently, cosy on their couch, sipping coffee, reading newspaper, and blaming everybody else for the miseries caused by corruption. ( again, I know its copied from Nayak, the movie – stop pointing at me – what did you expect me to be? Honest in an article on corruption?) .If you think that a single anti-corruption bill passed by the efforts of Anna Hazare will uproot corruption which has been there for years, either you don't want it to be gone or you are over optimistic.

Only if every single Indian becomes sincere in their duties, eg student in studies, bureaucrats in governance and housewives in home management with the limited income etc, every single problem existing in the present times will evaporate without precipitate.