Life. The More Literal View.

[Ucrg 0]

Okay, so my first contribution to the Life Talk section is finally realized. What am about to say, however, does not concern with just a single 'Real Life Experience', but rather a collage of different occurances and my take on them.Taking things from ground up, I think, will make more sense. I'm a student. My daily life, these days atleast concerns mostly books, classes, friends, and all the other undergraduate you can think of. But fact of the matter is, I live. I breathe, I walk and talk and hence am a part of the society that constitutes the very mass that inhabits this particular piece of land.. and er... water. And thus, whether I want it or not, I see and experience a lot on which I would pass, if given the choice.Living in a country where inflation is rocketing every time you check it, is quite an interesting affair. A place where economic stability is quite akin to a reed bridge in billowing wind. Where a portion of the public is richer than the government. Where influential groups or individuals can get anything done, on maybe just a little more than a whim. There are countless incidents that I can quote, some that I myself have witnessed and quite a lot more that others have, that make you stop and think "If this keeps going on, let the bombs fall.."For instance, I'm not sure if public is like this everywhere, but here at the very least no one really lends a hand to someone in need. This guy was being held up on gunpoint on a main full-of-traffic road, with pedestrians passing by and all. The guy fished him clean; bag, wallet, cellphone and everything else the poor bloke might have, in a little more than 20 seconds and everyone just passed by. No one turned once to help.Now for a little different example. My cousin sat in an examination a week ago, in his university. Well, actually it was sort of a make-up exam as he was improving his overall GPA before graduating. This guy who sat in front of him raised his hand to call the invigilator, and when the pot-bellied, middle-aged Lecturer came to him, the guy muttered something to him and slipped something into his hand. Then the invigilator left. A couple of minutes later, he returned with a stack of Xerox'ed papers; handed one to him and then one each to several other candidates.A few minutes passed in silence, and then the guy turned around and asked my cousin if the paper was too hard. My cousin had prepared well, and so he said no. The guy insisted that he buy the solution to the questions in the exam, that had just come, out of (what he called) good-will and brother-hood. My cousin indignantly refused him again, finished his paper and got out as soon as he could manage it, while the other students (with full consent of the invigilators) copied from their ...er... Good-willed solutions.Moving on... I had a chat with my father last night. We were discussing the increasing trend in the price of land over the last couple of years; and the implications of the political instability on it. He knows quite some people in the governing body, and he told me that there is a very well coordinated mafia within the government as well. For example if you want to sell your house thats in a, say, prime location; you simply cant. Unless you get an approval from... say, someone called Mr. X (Who is ofcourse some high ranking official in the Development Authority Department of the Local Government). How do you get about doing something like that? Well, you have to prepare... how should I put this, an adequate fee (which is obviously paid under the table), for the majestic Mr. X.Things like these happen every day. They're common occurances. So common actually, that people have become somewhat like the virus that gained immunity to the anti-biotic. It doesn't affect them. They're either oblivious to all of it (or atleast some part of it), or they've become so accustomed to it that hey don't even feel anything out of place anymore.Whatever the case may be, God help us.