So Sunday morning Breaking News was hogged by both - Baba Ramdev and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. One wonders why these spiritual gurus - who ideally shouldn't have anything to do with mundane everyday life - are getting riled about the black money. If they have to improve the lot of the common people, there are plenty of issues to choose from. Why, for starters, don't they tell all their followers to keep their neighborhoods clean? How about saying 'No' to female infanticide? No Dowry? No smoking? No killing in the name of religion? Sending the girl child to school?

Shouldn't tackling corruption be a bottom-up approach rather than a top-down one? It's common people like you and me who should stop giving and receiving bribe - even if it means facing delays in getting our work done or the possibility that the work will not be done at all. Are we prepared to bear the pain? It is rather like the 'Prisoner's Dilemma'. We all know it is in our best interest to do so but none of us will do it.

Plenty of reasons will be put forward as to why people take bribes. I had read an interesting article that said that it is ingrained in our culture because most of us would not think twice about bribing our favorite deity with sweets or money if our wish is fulfilled. Then there is the simple thing called 'Greed'. But then there are also things like insufficient salaries, rising cost of education, the practice of dowry and so on and so forth. Each of these is a wrong in itself that somebody needs to set right. No legislation is going to do the magic trick. This change has to come from within us. If we decide for ourselves that we will not take bribe, we will not pay bribe and we will encourage those who will do work without taking a bribe, corruption will start getting rooted out from the bottom and this change will surely make its way to the top.

But can we root out corruption altogether? Well, I think that's wishful thinking because, sadly, there is no medicine as yet for the malady called greed! :-(