You must have noticed this phenomenon often. An Inspector of Police draws up to a popular street corner, parks his motorbike under a tree and sets up in just a few seconds a kind of mini darbar, a semi-mobile court of sorts. The constables send errant cases to him or often just go and hand over the booty. There is a Challan Book that is obviously kept on the lap of the Inspector and is used as a threat to coerce payment of the bribe that helps citizens avoid huge fines, imprisonments or both.

And there is Discussion…a lot of it…the offenders use every trick in the book to try and walk out of the ‘trap’ without paying a ransom. The Police chap is unmoved. The begging and pleading gets even more desperate and hilarious. Still no softening on the Inspector’s side. People’s names are dropped…sometimes this works…more often it only spurs the eventual price up the spiral.

But hey hold it!!! There was an offence committed. An individual caught. Punishment has been prescribed and the Dosage is a given. Now where is the Discussion???

There are times in life when discussions are called for. And there are times when there simply isn’t the scope for discussion of any kind. The problem however is that where there is need for discussion, there is often silence. And where there is really no room for debate, a long discussion takes place.

Thinking of life from this perspective throws up several questions…Was Sajjan Singh guilty? The Sikhs have boiled over and we are still wondering. Did Rajiv Gandhi take a bribe or not? Mr. Q is dead and gone and we are still ‘discussing’ this. Was the Masjid demolition avoidable? Monsieur PVNR is history and we are still in discussions.

The street passes judgements in a jiffy and a whole country moves ahead on a premise..not always a promise. But discussions still crowd our minds. There is always ‘gunjayeesh’ for adjustment.

I don’t know about you but I think our quality of life will significantly improve if we debate and discuss what is necessary and firmly decide on other ‘non bailable’ issues.

You jump the signal. You pay a fine. You make a mistake. You pay the price. No discussion.

Discussion is necessary when there are at least points of view and both have some merit. Else just speak…and it should be done. Amen…