SHORT STORY

HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY??

My name is Jyoti and I am working as a teacher in a small private school in our locality. My husband namely Sanjay, is working as Clerk in the Education Department. Though, he is a Clerk and has every opportunity of indulging in corrupt practices; he is honest and a man of principles. We have two lovely kids namely Aditya and Aisha, who are 18 and 10 years old respectively.

As it is quite hot in the month of May and so was that day. After coming from the School, I finished the household chores and was waiting for Sanjay for evening tea. There was a knock at the door, Aditya opened the door and it was Sanjay.

I offered him a glass of water while he was still standing in the living room. He refused and then I noticed that he is looking upset and disturbed.

“What happened?” I said to him while enquiring.

“Nothing,” he replied coldly.

“Swear on me, you have to tell me what is the problem,” I insisted again.

“The result of Common Entrance Test for Engineering & MBBS Courses has been out today,” he replied.

Glass of water held by me fell on ground and shattered into pieces all around the room like the dreams of Aditya.

Aditya, who was also present there, left the place and ran towards his room with tears on his face. Aditya’s reaction was normal as he had studied day and night to work for his dream to become an Engineer and has also passed 10+2 with 93% marks this year but could not appear in CET examination as his Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC*) is under process with the Revenue Department since last more than two years. Being a middle class family, we couldn’t afford Engineering College fee and the only hope for we people is Govt. Colleges and that too was shattered in view of non availability of PRC.

(*Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC) is required to apply for all Govt. jobs offered by Govt. of J&K and also for all the Entrance Tests including J&K Common Entrance Test for Engineering & MBBS)

I was reminded of the time when Sanjay used to visit the Municipal office time and again for issue of Aisha’s Birth Certificate but was not successful as he was not ready to give any bribe to Municipal officials. Eventually, I had to call my brother for the same and he had put some bribe in the pockets of Municipal officials to get the Birth Certificate. Though Sanjay had serious objections that why I allow him to bribe Govt. officials.

“Jyoti, Jyoti, tell me where you have kept my clothes, I am not able to find them,” Sanjay called me from the room and I came out of my thoughts.

“Why are you shouting?” I said to him while going to the room.

“I know you are upset but what can be done?” he responded politely.

On hearing this I lost my temper and said, “It is all because of you and your out of the world principles that has ruined the career of my son. Now, he had to wait for one more year for appearing in the said Entrance Test that only if you would be able to get his PRC till then.”

He replied surprisingly, “you think it’s my fault and not of the officials who have always been putting objections on the file of Aditya’s PRC on one pretext or other for want of bribe.”

“Yes! You are responsible for that and for God sake put your principles of ‘Honest is the best policy’ on stack so that the future of our kids may not be worsened further,” I asked him in displeasure.

“I know that there is corruption in system due to which Aditya has to face problems but how can I promote corruption by giving bribe for my work when I believe that it is a heinous crime which is spoiling the system,” he again responded politely.

“In which world do you live? Honesty, truth etc. are only meant to be taught in the schools to kids and have no value in the real world”, I replied to him.

I continued further, “As you know for any work in any Department, be it Social Welfare, Revenue, PHE, PWD, Education, Health or Municipality etc. without corruption nothing is going to happen. Money is the only force for the movement of the files.”

During this whole argument we didn’t noticed when Aisha entered our room and from when she was listening to us. We were aware about her presence when she while pulling my dupatta said to me curiously, “Mumma, Mumma, tell me one thing.”

“What beta?” I said.

She replied, “Mumma, it means the story ‘Honesty is the Best Policy’ taught by you is a lie?”

“It means all the moral stories you people and the teachers kept teaching & telling us all these years are lies!!!! The real world is as different as you were telling to Papa??”

I had no answer for her!!! Not even has Sanjay. We both were looking towards Sanjay answerless.

But question remain still there. Are the moral stories taught to the kids beneficial for them when in actual the system is so corrupt where honest persons are sidelined and corrupt rule the roost.

                                                                                    - S D Bogal