Caught a male colleague digging his nose at a meeting? Or touching his private parts totally oblivious to the others in the room squirming in their seats? Most of us would shrug away such behaviour simply because we see so much of it around us. Next time this happens, gift him a copy of the book, Broom and Groom, suggests former top cop Kiran Bedi.
It’s the desire to “stem the rot” of uncivil behaviour that gave birth to the idea of such a book, says Bedi, the co-author of the book. “This is only a small effort to stem the rot. If we don’t do this, it will only get more rotten by the day. We decided to document everything uncivil around us that is annoying. If you remain thin-skinned and you have the power of the pen, you can reach out to stop it,” she says.
Motivational speaker Pavan Choudary, who has co-authored the book, agrees. He cites the many articles that Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Navajivan, especially the one titled Our Dirty Ways, to send out the message that if we do not clean our own backyard, our country will stink. We Indians have so many achievements to speak of. But we should not allow our lack of civic sense to pull us down, he says. “This is a personality building book — a finishing school — for anyone interested in making a positive impression,” he says.
Bedi says certain types of uncivil behaviour should not be accepted as a cultural inheritance and one that must be tolerated — our habit of repeatedly bumping into the person standing before us in a queue, for example. “It’s a social habit that needs urgent reworking. Don’t give it the name of culture,” she warns.
On the book’s website www.broomandgroom.in, a reader comments that the book should be given to every person in Delhi in time for the Commonwealth Games. Was the book’s launch timed for the Games? “It actually was. But we did not reach out to any authority to publicise the book. We just didn’t know who to go to,” Bedi says and adds that the book is a part of her work to raise social consciousness towards better nation — and community — building.
The book’s synopsis describes it as a hope for a social renaissance in civil behaviour. Is this truly possible? “It’s a Herculean task. There is a lot of darkness. But what stops us from lighting a lamp? Even if it illuminates only the neighbourhood,” says Choudary.
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