From TINA to NINA

                                                                            From TINA to NINA

A wonderful caption From TINA to NINA” appeared in one of the newspapers last week.  The Tina factor has plagued us far too long and given us a legitimate excuse to welcome mediocrity in all aspects of life. We have been content with below par quality purchases as they were the best out of what was available and we blamed it with a wry comment: TINA. Even in the best of apple or mango seasons, we are content to have second grade fruits because they are the only ones available- the top grade fruits get exported. Hiring a driver or a servant was again a question of selecting from a poor crop of workers available than going in for the best. In the universities and schools, vacancies had necessarily to be filled lest the students should suffer and we went in for average or below average candidates since the better ones had either taken wings or grabbed by MNCs and top companies for a ugly fat salary.  It was always the same refrain: TINA. Marriages In India are not always between the best boy and the best girl- rather the best groom and the best bride -but between two deemed to be better people available from the money sucking matrimonial sites  and who could fit into the family budget .  TINA was the answer to matches made through marriage.com sites. When we went to vote, we voted not for the best candidate( because there was  no one with unimpeachable credentials), but we voted one who was the least disagreeable and we together made a chorus of TINA. Even ater defeat,the Congress party says it will hold on to the mother-son duo because of TINA. We Indians are endowed with so much tolerance that we embrace mediocrity with great gusto solely on the basis of TINA factor.

We have of late realized how we have sold our souls to TINA because it is easy to give the mind holiday and not stress it to make a choice out of qualitatively superior persons or products  or policies and pick any from the available lot as one is no better than the other. No regrets as the choice is a choiceless choice.  But one now perceives a slow turn towards NINA

In fact modern Indian history post independence had shown a ding-dong between TINA and NINA. We witnessed glimpses of the replacement of TINA by NINA after the disastrous emergency era was ushered in by Indira Gandhi who was ironically born into and nurtured by  a family steeped in democratic principles. A decade after the initial euphoric years of self governance, we, Indians began to understand the virtues of democracy. Congress party that had metamorphosed into Cong(I) under Indira Gandhi with a hand symbol was no longer the one to be voted to power on the basis of TINA . We changed TINA to NINA (Now I Need  Alternatives) and voted repeatedly for Kalaidescopic coalitions at the Centre of ideologically opposed parties. With no principles (common mInimum programmes) strong enough to bind the parties, Governance became a casualty  and made people wonder if they had misread TINA and found in these rickety, bedraggled alignments the alternative to TINA. The coalition adharma made the voters in the recent elections vote BJP with a massive majority as the TINA factor worked in its favour.

Can TINA sustain for long? Already cracks seem to be appearing as the government and the cadres are speaking in different voices leading to communal unrest in the country. But the experiment with AAP as the NINA factor no longer enthuses the people. It will be a pity if NINA factor that lets in fresh air is stifled and we are made to breathe the TINA air that gets polluted by absolute power and the arrogance that goes with it.

There is no alternative to NINA. We have to find NINA to save ourselves from being dragged into a whirlpool of mediocrity. The PM’s passionate call for Swachha Bharat is to lift us out of that welter of dirt  into which we have blindly pushed ourselves saying “This Is India; there is no alternative to the dirt and filth that is around us”. So is his call for  “Make in India”. Though this was meant to attract foreign manufacturers to invest in India, the truth is all the products that have till now made in India including potato chips are of poor quality. Even the local white shirts that our sportspersons wear cannot match the whiteness of foreign shirts. There is a certain indifference to quality for we are easily satisfied with poor stuff justifying our love for mediocrity on TINA factor.  The lack of attention to details in everything that we do (barring our Space scientists) is because of our strong conviction and attitude that everything goes (is acceptable)-  “sab chalta hai” . A bad teacher, a poor worker, an indifferent clerk, an unethical doctor, a greedy lawyer, an ineffective cop- we can go on and on with a list of service providers whose indifference is tolerated by us as a TINA factor. It is time for us to rouse ourselves to fight TINA with a robust call for NINA. It is in NINA that we can finda change for the better..

Nietzsche wrote God is dead. Why he killed God was to kill the TINA factor that made men hold on to God as a crutch and not evolve further. He wanted Man  to assert NINA and find an alternative to evolve higher into a Superman by discarding the crutch. Unless we affirm to ourselves that Now I Need Alternatives, we may be forever doomed to mediocrity. Sir Arthur Conal Doyle wrote "Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself…” Unless we lift ourselves to seek higher and better ways of living with a self conviction that Now I Need Alternatives,,we shall forever remain prisoners of TINA.