Not a crime to adjust

THE BOY was barely ten years old. Trying to pedal a cart of water pots three times his weight, he swerved awkwardly, lost control and hit my car. For my already battered car, it was just one more 'scrap' with adventure. But I needed to talk to the tea-and-bun man for whom the boy worked. I could give him a lecture on child labour.

The shop owner surveyed the car. He said smoothly, "Getting it repaired is no big deal for you. Why don't you just adjust?" I blinked. What did he mean? Then it dawned on me. He wanted me to forget the whole thing and drive away. His tone actually accused me of petulance over something trivial.

The carpenter was boarding up the balcony with segmented glass panes. After they were fitted, we noticed a yawning gap between the frames and the wall. The fissure was uniform which meant his measurements were wrong. But the workman was unfazed. "We will adjust", he said confidently. After 'super', 'adjust' must be the most used/ misused word in Chennai. You hear it popping up at unexpected turns and in unimagined contexts. From a scornful "Why don't you learn to adjust?" to a consoling "Ok, we'll adjust", the word expresses a range of feelings and elicits a variety of responses.

Sidneysider Cheenu on a visit to Chennai sees red at the mention of the word. "What is this 'adjust'?" he fumes. "Do you realise it is an excuse for incompetence? It is typical of Indian thinking, a clear example of our national character. We don't spend time on preparation, we don't draw an accurate blue print, we don't work out the feasibility of the enterprise, we ignore the need for a time-frame and unhesitatingly jump into an undertaking. We do this because it is possible to get away saying, "We can adjust!"

"Look around. There is evidence of this 'adjust' mentality everywhere. People are late for work, traffic rules are treated as optional, there are enough government holidays to warrant its closing down, wires hang over new buildings, we pave the roads and dig them up the next day, housing colonies spring up long before any one has thought of laying roads, and we take television and computers to villages where there is no drinking water!" "Yours (when did it become yours?) is a patch-up society. Can't you see that 'adjusting' is a pernicious postulate? What if a doctor makes a mistake and decides to adjust? Can the Army adjust after bombing its own depot? This 'adjust' philosophy precludes originality.

We borrow ideas and adjust them to our needs. We assemble imported components and sell the product in the grey market. Screw-driver technology keeps us from being innovative and creating our own resources. And the movies in town! I have seen most of them in their Hollywood version! Stories and sequences are stolen without a thought about copyrights. They are then... well you know the word, and screened as 'originals'. Only those who refuse to adjust establish themselves in the international market!"

Wilting under the virulent attack, I went to a journalist friend for words of comfort. "Accommodation has its uses you know", he smiled. "Today, I had to 'adjust' my time to speak to you. Instead of being apologetic, let us view it as a positive principle."

"In many ways our country runs, even progresses in spite of the general chaos because of our willingness to accommodate. Reconciliation makes life tolerable. Traffic moves in this city's 'getting-narrowed-by-the-day' roads only because we tolerate road users ranging from strolling pedestrians to suicidal motorcycle maniacs. We reverently give way to convoys of white cars with rotating red lights.

Why go that far, take our own homes. Our marriages last because of our faith in give and take. We 'adjust' and somehow work out a relationship. We get our ration cards, gas connections and our passports because someone is willing to compromise."

My colleague Chitra laughs when I mention the six-letter word. "I use it too," she says candidly. "I don't know how I can get through the day without trade-offs. I get into the conformity mode early in the morning.

I put up with the maid who synchronises her arrival perfectly with the time I leave for office. On the bus or the train, I push further towards the window so one more can squeeze into the seat. I keep mum when my neighbour throws her garbage into my compound, I stay cool when the plumber doesn't turn up to fix my kitchen tap, when electricity goes off and the telephone doesn't work, I adjust as I'm expected to do! Do you remember the parting advice a mother gives her daughter when she goes to her husband's house? 'Anusarichindu pomma' meaning 'don't come back with complaints."

By agreeing to 'oblige', you perhaps give others a long rope to take commitments casually.

May be it shows lack of professionalism. May be it smacks of fatalism. But you buy peace when you adjust or find a middle course. Overlooking faults means restraint in handling emotions. It prevents your day from being a disaster, keeps your blood pressure in check. It is an indispensable part of city life. It is the oil that keeps the wheels of life running smoothly. Don't forget when we 'adjust', we tacitly expect others to reciprocate. That is certainly a comforting thought.

GEETA PADMANABHAN

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