Essay on Discipline as a recipe for Success

“Good order is the foundation of all things,” says Edmund Burke. Call it God or Nature, it has provided a perfect system without an iota flaw. The seasonal changes, sunrise and sunset, rivers merging in the balance of nature, the phenomena of both the animal and the plant kingdom, birth, death and the eternal truth that whatever or whoever born has to die, the beauty of childhood, the turbulence of youth, struggle of manhood and twilight of old age all are various parts of system of the Great Designer.

Here is a God-given system one finds too costly to temper with. However, powerful man can pretend to be, he can ill-afford to come in the way of the order of things. Strange things are happening in different parts of the world on account of global warming all triggered in the name of development.

Human greed is responsible for the global warming which is resulting in the shrinking of the glaciers, changes in Antarctica and other cataclysmal changes elsewhere. The experts claim that even the deadly Hurricane Katrina, which caused extensive damage in New Orleans in the US, recently, could have been set off by the steady global warming.

Man can meddle with the order of things only at his own peril. Order and discipline are an integral part of our daily life-at the individual level, at the community level, at the national level and the international level. And this discipline starts right from the home. Both the parents have to play a signal role to inculcate discipline in their children.

Mother sets the example by keeping the house neat and tidy. She wouldn’t allow her children to mess up the drawing room or the dining room. Back home from school, the children are expected to leave the shoes at the proper place and the school bag in their study.

Someone has said that the discipline and the flair for cleanliness of a family is not judged on the basis of how its members keep the sitting room attractive, but on the basis of how they keep the toilet and the bathroom clean.

Parents, more particularly, the mother, keep a close watch on their children in every facet of their emotional, mental, intellectual and physical growth so that they grow into responsible citizens for whom both the community and nation could be proud of.

At the school and the college too, the youth have to be disciplined in order to become role models. Punctuality, appearance in smart dress, respect for the teachers and the peer groups and socialibility, all the parts of discipline. If the student listens to the teacher in absolute silence and in total concentration, half the job is done.

The basics of discipline learnt at the home and the school will never be forgotten. The popular expression, “Catch them young”, holds true in the area of discipline. One can nostalgically dream of the old “gurukula” system. It may be difficult to invoke the old sacrosanct teacher-pupil relationship, but it is possible to hold one’s teachers in great reverence.

Can an individual or a family or a community or a nation reach for higher goals throwing to the winds the fundamental prerequisite of discipline? When indiscipline is the order of the day, chaos follows at the home level, the campus level, the community level and the national level.

What is it that makes political parties use college and university campuses as the narrow battle grounds for furthering their political ends? Campuses help mould the youth into young healthy minds that contribute their best to the nation. No educationist would allow its youngsters to deviate from the path chosen for them.

Take a close look at the national scene. There was a nationwide strike on September 29, 2005. There was a total shut down in States like West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura and Assam. Life came to a standstill in these States with the government offices and the banks virtually grinding to a halt.

Even the Chief Minister of West Bengal, a State ruled by the Leftist Alliance for over three decades in a row, was upset by the virtual bandh at a time when he was wooing investors from abroad. One can concede the right to protest, but none can hold the entire country to ransom. That such protests are happening very frequently in certain States in the country augurs ill for the development of the country. This trend, encouraged by trade unions and certain parties, is likely to push the nation to the brink of disaster.

Let’s take a close look at the small city-state of Singapore, a unique model of discipline. Mr. Thomas Friedman writes for the New Times News Service, “Indeed, Singapore believes so strongly that you have to get the best-qualified and least corruptible people you can into senior position; in the government, judiciary and civil service that it pays it’s Prime Minister a salary of $ 1.1 million a year. It pays its Cabinet Ministers and Supreme Court justices just under $ 1 million a year… Good governance mattered in Singapore.”

Fines are slapped on those who spit on the road or sidewalks. Here in India, one keeps one’s house tidy by dumping one’s garbage in the compound of one’s neighbor. Solid wastes are an eyesore in every city. One does not have any civic sense just because one is disciplined.

Babus and the officials coming late to the office everyone are intelligent enough to leave their seats early before the closing time between come the tea time and the lunch time. They have hardly time to work. And on National Integration Day they take the oath discipline! Wisdom dawned upon the authorities very late that could be managed even with half of the staff provided for.

Singapore’s acknowledges recipe for success has been its toll discipline in every walk of life. Reacting to the chaotic situation in Na Orleans after the killer Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan New School of Public Policy, said, “In the areas that m critical to our survival, like Defence, Finance and the Ministry of Hen Affairs, we look for the best talent.. .You lose New Orleans, and you ha 100 other cities just like it. But we are a city-state. We lose Singapore a there is nothing else. So the standards of disciplines are very high. There a very high degree of accountability in Singapore.”

When a subway tunnel under construction collapsed in Singapore in April 2004 and four workers were killed, a government enquiry concluded that top executives of the contracting company should be either or jailed.

There are healthy jokes in the cinema world where one actor watching the noisy scene in the classroom jests: “I thought I was in the Assembly or the Parliament! I can’t stand this kind of indiscipline.” Our Parliament has long ceased to be an ideal Parliament. The same is the case with some of the State Assemblies. Says senior columnist, Mr. Inder Malhotra, “Parliament thrives on differences, dissent and debate. But this time around, political differences had turned into personal animosities.”

One of the State Assemblies witnessed just a few years ago a battle royal with MLAs exchanging blows and fisticuffs and some even using chairs and mikes in a free-for-all. It is this kind of politics that the indefatigable former Chief Election Commissioner. Mr. T.N. Seshan wanted to nip in the bud by bringing about electoral reforms thereby eliminating the scum of the society. Thanks to Mr. Seshan and his successors, a lot of clean-up has taken place. Still, we have miles to go before we can say that a semblance of order and discipline has been achieved.

The President of India once observed that the MPs were elected to legislate and debate and that they should utilize optimally the trust reposed in them by their electorate. According to the Lok Sabha Secretariat, the taxpayer pays at the rate of Rs. 1. 23 crore per day for the proceedings in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, that is, the running of Parliament costs Rs. 23, 083 per minute. What happens if the proceedings are interrupted and the Members walk out? Are not the citizens paying for the occasional pandemonium? We expect more from the legislators whom we elect periodically. And, mind you, the upcoming generation is watching us. If we are not setting the norms of discipline, who else will do it?

No branch of life can ever survive without a sense of discipline or order. More than a lakh of people die on the roads and highways of the country. Accidents that could have been avoided if only we cared. The culprits could be all, the vehicle users, the pedestrians and the authorities themselves. The jaywalker, instead of opting for the zebra crossing chooses to cross the road wherever he chooses without bothering about the speed of on coming vehicles, thus courting death or lifelong disability.

The motorcyclist shows his acrobatics on the congested road tearing through the traffic the zigzag way. And there is the three-wheeler that turns around without any indication posing a perennial hazard to the other road users. It is often said that one lives as one drives. A man of discipline would show his composure while driving a vehicle too. Many of the young feel that petrol and alcohol is an excellent cocktail and they do not necessarily reach their destination, nor let others reaches theirs.

In several cases, the authorities themselves turn villains in this tragic drama. In many cities, there are no footpaths or provisions for the pedestrians. Roads are dug out periodically by the electricity, telecom, water and sewerage departments with a kind of vengeance against the road users and making
travel by any conveyance a nightmare. The neglect and lack coordination among the authorities and their failure to attend to potholes increase the accident rate. Who cares? This is the attitude of all.

It is high time that we realize that our survival hinges on how interact with the rest of the society. We have to accommodate other citizens in the same way as we expect the same spirit of cooperation from others.

A successful housewife, an intelligent student, a dynamic bureaucrat, hard-working technocrat and a farsighted statesman are all wedded discipline all through their life. They are patient, persevering, opt and accommodative, just because they know that by strictly follow’ discipline they stand to gain in any walk of life.