RESPECT

I recently got a new sticker on the silencer pipe of my R15. It cries out loud “RESPECT”. To be honest with you all, the idea for it came from FIFA. Well most of us who follow football might have seen the word running around on the electronic advertisement boards. Now when the sticker guy asked what I would like to be written on the tail pipe I said RESPECT out of the inner attitude that I have. But apart from it I never gave a deep thought into what it actually represents or rather means until when this 1’st year girl in our college was tying her shoe laces with her foot on the letters. I really got pissed off and we had a long conversation on whether she was illiterate, blind or simply ignorant. But this small incident made me think. What is the thing that I want convey to the masses with this small word. Is it an Order, or a Request? Is it a statement, or a notice?

When you see the word RESPECT with nothing in front of it nor any thing in its rear how do you interpret it?

If given a thought then you must agree that RESPECT is a very important pillar that keeps the society running. Without respect the system will be so easily disrupted, all the sequence tampered, the rules broken, the order turned into chaos. But if seen closely then we’ll see that RESPECT has long evaded the hearts of the common man. The motorist doesn’t think twice before evading that traffic signal, the Romeo’s does not think twice before cheating on their Juliet’s. The politicians give a damn about it voters while pocketing all the cash, The musician pays no heed to any copyright violations before lifting that track, The policemen before taking the bribe, The government official before passing the pensioners file, The student before preparing chits for exams, The sportsman before taking a dope, The doctor before stealing the kidney, The engineer before ordering low grade cement, The champu before peeing on the roadside. RESPECT is missing everywhere, and the end result is chaos.

People who live under self build rules and ethic does not need a reminder for RESPECT of the universe and its small details. Why do other people have to impose rules and regulations on you when you can build them yourself, and the fun part being you can tweak it according to your needs. When you have RESPECT for every small thing around you only then you can be truly a complete man not just to the world but also to yourself. Respect, Honor, Dignity, make that your driving force and nothing can stop you. With these small changes you can always sing

Oh, this has gotta be the good life

This has gotta be the good life

This could really be a good life, good life

I say oh, got this feeling that you can't fight

Like the city is on fire tonight

This could really be a good life

A good, good life