Does it not bother you?

Prof. SH used to tell us in class how Mr. JRD Tata, once while travelling in Air India was being served food using a food trolley (He had the airline company as ‘Tata Airlines’ before). He observed that the trolley was not working properly and that the wheels were not tightened fully. Everybody might have observed that and neglected it. The person carrying the trolley would also be aware about that.

Mr. JRD saw the food trolley being carried towards him. When it came close to him, he pulled out his pen, bent down and tightened the wheels.

Prof. SH used to ask us, why does it not bother you if something is not working properly, especially if you are using it or are in some way affected by / attached to it? So, if there is a tube-light which is blinking in your office, does it not occur to you that it needs to be changed. You might not do it yourself, but at least the facilities people can be informed about it. Or do you wait for them to do their periodic check and find out or wait till some other person brings it to their attention.

I have been guilty of similar things myself and so somehow could relate to it. Many a times, I take the “it’s ok” attitude a little too far.

In my dorm, in the common area, I see things lying around in a not so orderly fashion. I understand that in a dorm, you cannot expect everything to be properly arranged and all, and may be that is the way it should be. But, it sometimes feels a little more out of order than necessary. I try to put in the old newspapers in a stack so that they do not keep lying around. The helper can be asked to keep things clean & proper and a little hard tone would do no harm. I always ask him to sell away the old newspapers scrap merchant once a certain quantity of paper gathers. He also benefits from the little money that he gets by selling these. Infact, when I was last in the dorm, he himself had started asking if he can take away the papers.

I am not boasting or anything. It just feels that the dorm is my home and I would have done this at my home as well. So, I am not obliging anyone.

Even when I was working, we had this small room in which we had business magazines, newspapers etc – kind of a small library room. And again the old magazines used to lie around the room; the stack for one particular magazine had other magazines in between etc. I don’t blame others, for they themselves did not have problems (or did not seem to have problems) with such arrangements.

Prof. SH used to wonder why does this behaviour not come out automatically? Why does one’s heart not get pained on seeing such things? Why does one not start setting things "right" and just ignores such things?